The joint political and civic appeal to regional leaders during the recent Heads of Government conference signals the recognition of a need for change in government and the country’s political culture, according to AFC leader Raphael Trotman.
The AFC along with the GAP-ROAR, the WPA, the Unity Party and the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) published the letter to Caricom Heads of Government during the hosting of the summit, emphasising the need to “rekindle hope” among the Guyanese people in the face of the continuing disintegration of the society. The letter, published in full-page advertisements in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News, highlighted the failure of Heads of Government to remain engaged in the country’s reconciliation process, saying that the hopes of the people in the Herdmanston Accord and the St. Lucia Statement had been dashed. It added that the country continues to “haemorrhage,” while the people feel “deeply betrayed” by the process.
While President Bharrat Jagdeo has dismissed the letter as mere “antics” by the AFC, intended to create the impression that Guyana was violating democratic norms, Trotman explained on Friday that the letter was a collaboration that took a lot of work. It follows a similar strategy by the party during the Summit of the Americas in April in Trinidad, where the AFC placed a full page ad in the Trinidad Express highlighting bad governance by the Jagdeo administration.
He explained that while the party intended to employ a similar strategy during the Heads of Government conference, it also decided to reach out to other groups. “The Alliance for Change by its very name is thinking alliances,” Trotman said, explaining that the party is looking to expand, and is starting to look at the possibilities going into 2011 general elections. “And we are finding that there are many willing partners and persons who feel like we do; that we have to have a change, not only in government but [also] in the political culture of the country,” he added.
Trotman said that since the letter was published, the government has targeted the AFC with attacks even though it was a collaborative effort. Nevertheless, he said the party was undaunted and would continue to respond. “The government has to know, and President Jagdeo in particular, that we are prepared to place ads when he least expects them and when he expects them,” he said, adding that the party would not stop.
In addition to the four groups identified by the ad, there were also a number of other supporters, including several prominent businessmen and civil society activists. Trotman explained that it was decided that symbols would serve the purpose rather than names or personalities.
Stabroek News, however, understands that an original plan to publish their names was scrapped because some of the supporters objected when PNCR leader Robert Corbin affixed his name to the letter. This newspaper was told that senior members of PNCR did have input in the content of the letter before objections to Corbin.
He has continued to face questions about his stewardship of the main opposition party as well as calls from some members to step down since the party recorded its worst election defeat at the last general elections. An attempt by the party to form a broad-based coalition in the run up to those polls was derailed by Corbin’s insistence on being the presidential candidate, a position that did not find much support among potential partners.
Meanwhile, the open letter referred to a “movement” that is under way to restore hope and reopen the doors of opportunity in country. Such a movement, it noted, begins with the belief that Guyanese in and out of Guyana have a duty to remove the blight that has settled over the land. In this regard, it noted the importance of the right of citizens to control their affairs, as enshrined in Article 13 of the Constitution which speaks to the establishment of an inclusionary democracy by providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens, and their organizations in the management and decision-making processes of the state. “It will not be easy. But the work of national revival must begin now. In order to ensure success, it needs the involvement of all Guyanese throughout Guyana and the Diaspora, regardless of race, class or religious belief,” it added.
According to the letter, the Guyanese society is in the process of disintegration. “Lawlessness stalks the land. Rape and murder of women and girls are on the rise. Guyana is not alone in the region with the growth of violent gun crimes, including extra-judicial murder by elements of the security forces and by private armies of drug lords, protected and cosseted by sections of the state. Well documented instances of torture by elements of the army and police are dismissed as ‘roughing up,’” the letter said.
It identified “cronyism and financial skulduggery” as major issues within the country and referred to “the looting of the public purse” confirmed year after year by the Auditor General. The collapse of the country’s education system and the “terminal decline” of the administration of justice were two other issues that were also highlighted.
Further, the state of the trade union movement was also lamented in the letter, which said its impotence is on show with every passing day as it has been bludgeoned into submission in the face of blatant union-busting and subversion of the industrial relations process. Additionally, the government was accused of seeking to increase its control of the minds of its citizens by extending its domination over as many sources of information as possible, while restricting the right of citizens to free access to information by owning and controlling the single radio monopoly in the country and stymieing freedom of information legislation. (Andre Haynes)
We shall overcome!! We shall overcome, some day. There will be peace in the land, I do believe Guyana will overcome someday. 2011 is that day. When Guyana will rise out of the doldrums to chaos and confusion. All Guyanese in and out of Guyana you are welcome to be part of the change. It’s about time. AFC!! AFC!! AFC!!
YES YES YES AND AMEN TO DAT WE MUST ALL BOW AND PUT OUR HEADS TOGETHER AND VOTE COME 0-11 FOR THE USED CAR SALESMAN TO MAKE HIM PRESIDENT OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF GUYANA SOUTH AMERICA.
HAIL RAMJATTAN FUH PRESIDENTE FUH LIFE::::::::::
Evil,,,Guyanese needs the PPPC that are taking them in the direction to prosperity, they do not deserve a leader that is looking TOKYO going LONDON,,,which direction can a leader with that impaired vision take anyone???
how can one sector of the population trust the phencee and the afeecee and all the others who could not fight the then phencee for 28 years, or speak up at carigon of what the phencee were doing.
every one wants power.
power is spinning in your head that you now care, well 2011 is already in the bag, progress is slow but sure the working people, YES THE WORKING PEOPLE WHO TOIL IN THE FIELDS will understand they cannot trust no other but their race base ppp. who stand up for them for 28 years, and that myfriend you cannot change, you just cannot erase those 28 years.
Well said freespeech….let them keep dreaming.
They will wake up one day with a horrible nightmare……
This is the right approach the AFC is taking, many people including the PPP are trying this new approach where they have now defaulted to saying they are the care taker government and there are no alternatives.
Well the good news is there are always alternatives whether it is to the PPP and or the PHENC. We always have choices good and bad and we have to make them.
The PPP was given their shot they have failed miserably, their collosal failure was not something many including myself ever imagined was possible.
Now it is time for us to show the PPP that they cannot continue to take the electorate for granted the way the PHENC abused us for so many years. The time for change is here and it is approaching faster than the PPP can even imagine. Many of their die hard supporters who still refuse to accept their failures like freespeech and cooolieman, soldier and all their various apologists will all come out hollering the virtues of the PPP. Mind you to date I am yet to read anything anyone from the soup licking camp has presented as a major success of the PPP rule these past 17 years.
The magic show is over, the circus tent will be wrapped up and ushered out of town with all the clowns and circus fare.
freespeach, when would this nonsencical logical thinking stop? When would we come to the realization that both the PPP and PNC failed this country miserably? You don’t sound like a patriot.
Great work Raff and Khemraj keep up the fantastic work, the people of Guyana are awakening to your leadership and the work you are doing day in day out down there.
Keep it lit our full support is with you and your team.
Businessmen do not want their names published, maybe they dealing in peppersauce and financing the ads, KfC with those splinter groups dreaming of ruling Guyana by appealing to foreigners, dis time na lang time if you can’t beat the PPP join them.
coolieman, my above remarks to freespeach refers to you also. Foreign Guyanese are Guyana’s #1 alternative resourse to development. Their know how far exceeds what the locals have to offer right now. Along with the cursed drug trade they are keeping Guyana’s economy afloat right now. And this is just related to the mittance they send to relatives.
If the political situation in Guyana can change to accomodate investment, there is a lot more money available. You guys cannot realy have Guyana’s best interest at heart, otherwise you would be begging the PPP to go or change their ideology, pronto. Merely suggesting another PPP tern in the circumstances, is scriligous.
Coolieman you can hew and cry all you want the people who support the AFC and who know what the AFC is all about are very well aware of where their funding goes and what it pays for.
So keep insulting all of us who contribute to the AFC and labelling us as peppersauce cocaine dealers that is exactly the kind of message the ppp perpetuates that have driven many like me away from the PPP and to a dignified group of leaders like those within the AFC.
Thanks for labelling us all as criminals coolieman, we feel that kind of treatment from your ppp anyway so it is appropriate that you should come on here and label AFC supporters are cocaine dealers. Keep up the great work and keep repeating the trash that Jagdeo spews, that will continue to help us garner mre supporters.
Greg the PPP has the answers right in front of them. Look at how india and mexico are leveraging their nationals outside of the country to develop their homeland.
but the PPP do not want non resident Guyanese to come back to Guyana because those who return will not tolerate their inept behaviour.
How could Trotman preach “change” when he is willing to team up with Corbin?that’s so ironic and so far he is not even giving us a hint on how he will go about bringing the changes,anyone can say what the ailment is but anyone cannot administer the cure.Like i said Trotman is jumping the gun here and i just hope for the future of Guyana that he does not run off the track before election time in 2011 because he is already making contradictory statements.
I suggest you stop drinking the Kool-Aid from the PPP and think for yourself for a moment. I don’t know where you got the “team up with Corbin” thing from. As a non Kool-Aid drinker, as far as I am concerned, as part of the parlimentary opposition, It is entirely logical that the concerns of the AFC will in many cases coincide with the concerns of the other opposition parties.
But let’s talk about who does *really* team up with whom.
Which two parties “team up” to support each other for chairmanships of the regional democratic councils before the ink was even dry on the flawed election results?
(a) PPP and PNC
(b) PNC and PPP
Which two parties “team up” to pass the undemocratic recall legislation to remove MP elected by the people??
(a) PNC and PPP
(b) PPP and PNC
Which two parties “team up” to split up scrutineering money between the two of them?
(a) PPP and PNC
(b) PNC and PPP
Lets face it. Almost invariably, when the interests of those parties coincide, it is to pass a measure that is morally reprehensible like the recall bill, which they both feel will give them some advantage but which neither wants to put to the nation on its own.
Folks, the truth is simple. The PPP needs the PNC to survive. It needs the Bogeyman alive so that it can scare the base back into the CUP every election time. That is why the PPP lambasts the AFC, because the AFC threatens the viability of the PPP’s trump card and by extension that of the PPP itself. Think about it folks. If the PNC were eliminated as a political force what would the PPP have left as a rallying point? Our stellar economic growth? Our firm grip on Crime? Our state of the art public health system? The lean clean and mean mean Government? Our unparalled respect in Caricom?
No folks, the PPP’s whole campaign strategy is to rally the base around “if a na we, a dem”.
The AFC gwine knock dem off one by one!
Chage is coming to all you soup drinkers run. Change is coming
Caricom is, and has been useless to Guyana. As Guyana was systematically looted and destroyed,racism rampant,CARICOM did nothing,and was in fact a collaborator with the PNC.Standing idly by.On the whole, their dismal record tells they are wholly inept and cannot be trusted. Guyana with it’s natural resources can do far better.Show me your company and I will show you who you are. Guyana, today in this slacker company,a nobody, after associating with nobodies.For 30 years.The place is run by dunces.Abandon this bungling insignificant non entity.