What’s going on… in the Opposition?

Your Eyewitness is getting really concerned about our opposition politicians. What with one party – the AFC – actually disappearing without a trace after the last elections – and the others consumed by their personal peccadillos – he worries about democracy maintaining its bona fides!! There’s the old conundrum posed in the question, “If a tree falls in the middle of the forest but there’s no one to hear it fall; did it actually fall?” Analogously, we are now faced with the question “If the opposition parties in a democracy all die, is there really a democracy??” After all, haven’t we been taught by our tutors from the north that with no opposition to any incumbent government it’s tantamount to telling the latter, “Do wha’ yuh wan’ wid me!?!”
So, let’s take a look at those who had promised us an Opposition – starting with the AFC. Seems to your Eyewitness they were always in danger of fissioning and disappearing because of their inherent contradiction of having leaders purporting to represent the ethnic voting blocs – Indians, African and Mixed. Amerindians were taken for granted, of course. While it sounded nice to say everybody were represented, it also meant that each of the self-appointed leaders thought they should be top dog!! They had to grapple with the gravamen of the old folk-saying, “If two-man crabs cyan live in de same hole – what about three?!!” At every election cycle, rather than focusing about what alternative program they offered the electorate, they became consumed in arguing who was gonna be “THE” leader!! As each of them wore out their welcome after they had their shot, very few were surprised when they sucked salt at the last elections. The Guyanese electorate looking for alternative leadership appeared to have concluded, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And fool me thrice ain’t gonna happen!!” Good riddance to self-inflated hollow men!!
The PNC was the original Opposition party to the PPP. But after their long, brutal twenty-eight years dictatorship after seizing power by literally seizing the ballot boxes – they fell back into their original role. But because they were so discredited and disgraced by their sordid history became consumed by trying to hide their identity. PNC became PNC-R – for “reform” by imitating the PPP’s “civic appendage. Didn’t work! They then became PNC-R1G for “Reform One Guyana” – which looked so much like PNC -rig, that it almost died stillborn!! They then went into a coalition with some paper parties and actually changed their name to APNU – but not a soul was fooled!!
A hyena can’t hide by lurking behind four or five mice – especially when the said rodents look clearly petrified about being eaten!!

…with the LOO
Now you might be thinking your ole Eyewitness was having a senior moment and forgot WIN and its leader Sanction Man – who decimated the PNC to become the new LOO!! But the reason’s much more mundane – he’s compelled to follow the model of his column!! So, Sanction Man gets a section of his own!! We last saw him flitting about the place while teeing off the Courts by making a mockery of their order for him to pay costs to the PPP Govt Ministers! He’d frivolously concocted claims that wasted precious judicial attention!!
Well in addition to teeing off Hindus by marching into one of their mandirs with his size six shoes and desecrating it in their ongoing Nau Raat observances – he announced he was taking his claims that were deemed frivolous in the magistrates, High and Appellate Courts – all the way to the CCJ!!
And then didn’t show up in front of Magistrate Judy, claiming an attack of Dengue!! No LOO in Court or in Parliament!!

…with the meteorologist??
Did your Eyewitness miss our meteorology department’s warning?? On Monday he was caught in one of the most sustained and heaviest downpours in his life.
Felt like building an Ark!!
Metereological office didn’t warn of Mondays rain