David Granger’s nomination as the PNCR presidential candidate has been viewed by the AFC as a move which is useful to its campaign and according to Khemraj Ramjattan the party will release its critical assessments of the retired brigadier as the election race heats up.
“Mr Granger’s candidacy will be very beneficial to the AFC and I want to leave it at that. As we go along we will make certain statements about him,” he told Stabroek News yesterday, adding that he was not about to start any “mudslinging”.
The Alliance For Change presidential candidate commended the process by which the PNCR selected its nominee saying he was happy that Granger was the product of a democratic process. However, the AFC has not changed its position with respect to a political alliance involving the main opposition party. “Our present position maintains that it’s a no-go even if it is a Mr Granger,” Ramjattan said.
The AFC prefers a three-way race, he said, in which the electorate will voice its opinion and decide on who will govern the country over the next five years. Ramjattan stressed that true liberation of the country will come as soon as, “we put to the test whether people vote reason or they vote race. We will never be a liberated country unless we vote reason.”
Running a dirty campaign is not the focus of the AFC since the focus is on outlining to the public what the party’s programme is, Ramjattan said. He said the PPP, led by President Bharrat Jagdeo, has already started the mudslinging, in reference to statements Jagdeo made about Granger at Babu John, Port Mourant on Sunday last.
However, he observed that Granger has opened himself to criticism from the AFC for saying the party borrowed African Guyanese votes from the PNC at the last elections. Ramjattan said he was disappointed with this particular statement from Granger because voters in the country have a mind of their own. “This was reported and I must state that it was [said] with an element of arrogance as if Afro-Guyanese are the transported supporters of the PNC.
Again, that is the kind of culture that the PNC and the PPP have. They feel they have transport over the East Indians and Afro-Guyanese.”
Ramjattan argued that leaders should not exploit the ethnic fears going into the elections, noting a resolution of the country’s ethnic problem is needed.
But when Stabroek News contacted Granger, he said his statements were misinterpreted. Granger recalled comments he made about “disaffected” PNCR members who joined the AFC prior to the 2006 elections; he stressed that his statements never addressed ethnicity.
“There were PNCR members who went over and I merely spoke about them being encouraged to return to the party, but I made no mention of ethnicity. I was misinterpreted,” Granger added.
Ramjattan said voters should be allowed to base their support on someone like him by watching his integrity, his morality, and what he stood for in and outside the PPP. He said the country’s ethnic dilemma surfaces during elections, arguing that it is an extension of the politics that used to be.
He said Granger’s statement smacked of severe arrogance on the part of the PNCR nominee, adding that no voter in Guyana is owned by any political party.
“That is why Granger could have made that statement. He wants back the votes the [PNC] lent to the AFC as if he has a transport over those voters…”
On the issue of alliances, he said the party retains the position taken at its last national convention, which was that the AFC will ally with any political and civic organisation and/or individual, except the PPP and the PNC as political entities. If anyone broke away from either party they would be accommodated. “If a Navin Chanderpal or a Moses Nagamootoo leaves we would tell them there is a place here and if the Winston Murray-ites that are in the PNC want to come over we have space, but as political entities we would not join them,” he said.
Ramjattan continued that Guyanese have seen the excesses of the PPP government, which “persons like Ralph Ramkarran and Donald Ramotar” have never spoken out against. And he charged that the PNC has had tremendous negatives as a party; “negatives which it does not want to apologize for…it was the party that created the Constitution which they now cuss everyday,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ramjattan labelled the President’s verbal upbraiding of AFC leader Raphael Trotman and its economic advisor Sasenarine Singh as a “Mahaicony cuss out”. He said the record would show Singh’s achievement over the years, and as it related to Trotman he stressed that his health reasons ought to be respected.
“The President’s pension package would have been severely criticized by Janet Jagan… We need more people within the PPP with her rebellious nature. This is the rebellious spirit that Ramjattan had inside of the PPP that is why they used to call me leader of the opposition,” he said. He said that the President continues to micro-manage and descend into “cuss-outs”.
