The year that was ended on what, perhaps, was an unsurprisingly tempestuous note. Brewing controversies like GAWU’s endless run-in’s with the management of GUYSUCO and the controversy over urban garbage disposal came to a head. Tempers flared and people spoke their minds. It transpired too that pettiness persisted up to the very last day of the year with Faith Harding’s ambition to become the PNC/R’s 2011 presidential candidate earning her a ‘dis-invitation’ to the army’s Old Year’s Night Ball.
Speaking of Balls one of course needs no crystal ball to predict some of the likely occurrences in this our election year. Here are a few of the more predictable predictions:
On the political front intra party controversy will intensify inside both the PPP and the PNC over the choice of presidential candidate. Two of the current hopefuls will withdraw before a candidate is selected. On the PPP’s side President Jagdeo will be openly accused of seeking to manipulate Donald Ramotar into the candidature and there will be a muted but intense showdown between himself and Moses Nagamootoo. Neither Jagdeo nor Nagamootoo, however, will command the attention of the PPP. The spending spree that will precede the announcement of an election date would have already begun. Some of the features of the PPP’s urban election campaign will include serious mass entertainment featuring imported artistes. Providence will ‘rock’ this year.
While the PNC’s internal spat will be more rambunctious there will be less political blood on the carpet. At the end of the nomination process, however, pressure will mount further on Robert Corbin to demit office. He will, however, make another announcement to the nation about his reasons for staying on.
Outside of the two major political parties and the Alliance For Change another citizens group will emerge and will name its own candidate. The name will come as a surprise to many since the individual has been known to be strongly linked to an existing political party.
Rumours that the 2011 elections will not see the last of President Jagdeo will surface again. What to do about the two-time President will become an important PPP preoccupation. The rumour that if the PPP wins Jagdeo could assume a Putin-like position in the administration are by no means far-fetched.
The planned surveillance system for which funding was recently voted will become the subject of a bitter political dogfight. The PNC will lead the charge and others will follow. The government will dig its heels in and this one could see people resort to the streets.
There will be tempestuous developments on the industrial front too. GAWU will not relent in its attacks against GUYSUCO and some government ministers. President Jagdeo has avoided their attentions so far but once he enters his lame duck period, GAWU will take aim at him. The PPP will fight off a serious attempt to divide the Party over GAWU.
Other unions will not be as fortunate. The GTUC will clash with government again. These will be brief confrontations over one issue or another and the government will defeat the TUC every time.
The performance of their respective portfolios will see calls for the resignation of the Ministers of Education and Health and while neither will be taken seriously by the government neither is likely to return to a PPP Cabinet if it wins the 2011 elections.
More spats will manifest themselves between the political administration and the army.
Some of the consequences of the Le Repentir garbage crisis will manifest themselves in a disturbing way. There could be casualties, mostly children and the government and City Hall will ‘square off’ once again in an effort to extract political mileage from the situation. People will take sides and protests could follow.
2011 will also witness a flurry of unusual arrests the implications of which will include several shows of public anger. In the vast majority of cases, however, incarceration will be brief though a spate of accusations of police beatings will surface. The police will remain very much in the spotlight this year, mostly for the wrong reasons.
Numerous fingers will be pointed at the government this year as fresh corruption scandals – including some at the GRA – and new crises surface in the electricity and water sectors. In the case of GPL the removal of CEO Bharrat Dindyal could be orchestrated to save face. That will not work, however. GPL, particularly, will once again be the subject of robust public protest.
