…to rig, of course!
You’ve got to give Lincoln Lewis credit for consistency in the trade union business. But he seems a bit naïve on the institutional memory of the PNC. Or is it he can’t bring himself to believe old dogs still like to suck eggs? Addressing the seeming intransigence of the PNC-led APNU/AFC Government to stick their finger in the eyes of the citizenry, he’s reported as concluding:
“This Government continues to behave as though it doesn’t care about governing after 2020. Never before has there been a group of people who achieved political power and national goodwill but are seemingly doing everything to give it up.”
But Lewis would remember, from his youthful days as a trade union representative at DEMBA, that the PNC of Forbes Burnham ran roughshod over Linden bauxite workers, even though they were his most rabid followers. Remember him teargassing those who protested over the fate of their RILA pension fund money?
Burnham’s point — as anyone who wants to complete his “legacy” would know – is that by the 1970s he didn’t need the votes of those supporters anymore. He’d rigged the 1968 elections and convinced the Americans to go along, because the alternative – the bogeyman Cheddi Jagan — had formally declared the PPP “communist” in 1969.
Burnham had already set into motion another “innovation” to ensure the coming 1973 election was “in the bag”. We now know he’d arranged for the GDF to do the “counting” of votes at Camp Ayanganna!
So Lewis should know that, whether or not then Major David Granger personally had a hand in the collection of votes, he had to be in the know. He was, after all, in charge of Burnham’s ideological training in the army, and has pronounced in his book, “New Road”, that the soldiers in 1973 performed their roles “splendidly”!
The prospective historian took great care to describe the directive the Burnhamite government gave to the army, and the activities of the soldiers in carrying out those orders.
Your Eyewitness would suggest to Lewis that David Granger, who’s now the PNC leader, has the 2020 elections “in the bag”. And would’ve convinced the Americans – whose strategic interest in oil has now replaced the old strategic interest in ideology – to go along. The oil contract “Nassau” Trotman “renegotiated” is the PNC’s demonstration of their “good faith”. Brigadier Granger didn’t hurt his credentials by flaunting his contacts with the US military at SouthCom. And then, of course, “Nassau” Trotman flaunted his sponsorship even more publicly in 2006!!
So Lewis should know the PNC isn’t taking any chance on “giving it up” when they do whatever they want.
They know all will be forgiven!!
…on sugar
We know, dear readers, you’re scratching your heads over the seemingly inconsistent gyrations of the Government on GuySuCo’s closure. And it’s nothing less than “closure”. First, the Government said they had to close the 4 estates because the subventions to keep them going were too high. So they fired 5700 workers just like that!!
Then we heard the SPU/NICIL wanted $15 billion to $20 billion to spruce up just TWO of the closed estates, to make them “attractive” to prospective buyers!!
Then the Finance Minister said, “No!! NO!!” the money’s for the “operational” estates. So the mass firings and closures didn’t help GuySuCo’s bottom line, did it? And now they’ve announced they actually need $30 billion for the sprucing up of the two closed estates!!
Can you believe this?? First of all, if they think they’ll even get $30 billion for the factories – since the land will be leased – they’re living in cuckoo land!!
And do these jokers think SERIOUS prospectors need cosmetics to get them to buy??
…for AFC’s Chairman
Yesterday, your Eyewitness wrote that Rumjattan compensated for his emasculation in his security portfolio by spiting some Berbicians who’d rejected him as a speaker. But, sadly, the situation’s even worse.
He had to beg Ammna Aly to intervene with the Police to do the dirty deed!! Just leave, fella!!
