The patter of feet crossing the political floor has reached the decibel level of a stampede. Early in the piece the PNC and the WPA and the various other political minnows created quite a racket rushing towards each other. People were coming and going in a frenzy, here one moment, and there, the other. Some of them ran and ran back; that was after the negotiations for positions in the coalitions collapsed. Peter Ramsaroop, for example, abandoned the chairmanship of the AFC to throw in his lot with APNU then left in a huff declaring that he wanted nothing to do with anything remotely resembling the PNC because they had never won an election in their lives. Why ever didn’t he think of that before he signed on in the first place?
The real story, we are told, is that Mr. Ramsaroop was demanding to be the coalition’s Prime Ministerial candidate and after he was told that such a position would have had to depend on the number of votes he could bring to the coalition he ran off, sulking.
Then after all the smaller fry had gathered under what was being perceived as a kind of political ‘big tent,’ there was talk of the Alliance For Change going over. But Ramjattan drew a line in the sand. He would have nothing to do with anything that had to do with either the PNC or the PPP. Ok! He had had his trials with the PPP and moreso with Jagdeo but the AFC would call its own shots. It had already proven in 2006 that it could muster quite a few votes on its own, anyway. So why not hedge its bets and wait to see what November 28 would bring before making its move. Politics is a funny thing and minority parties have been known to reap rich rewards in coalition governments elsewhere in the Caribbean.
And after the dust had settled over that particular stampede another one started. People started tiptoeing hither and tither, seeking to feather more comfortable political nests ahead of the elections. The AFC may have found it hard to join forces with the PNC but they apparently had less difficulty with giving political sanctuary to a former PNC Minister of government…the son-in-law of the PNC Founder Leader, to boot. Van West Charles, we are told, became a political malcontent after the passing of Winston Murray and the emergence of David Granger. He had lined himself up against true Corbinites; in fact he had harboured Party leadership ambitions; Winston Murray’s physical passing pretty much meant Van West’s political death………as far as the PNC was concerned. He simply had to find another pasture in which to graze.
In fairness to Joe Hamilton, his exit was more gradual. The PNC’s most boisterous elections-time rabble rouser simply slipped quietly from the political scene. Rumour has it that the ruling party provided him with greener grass to feed on. The next thing you know was that the man was breathing fire about the virtues of the PPP at Albion; and after the anomaly had been spotted and duly brought to public attention Joe declared that whatever else he may be he was no political grasshopper. You have a point Joe! After all, grasshoppers aren’t the only things that hop.
Philip Bynoe takes the cake…the whole cake. One minute a fire-breathing PNC strongman, the next, a fugitive from justice, having been deemed (along with Mark Benschop) to have committed treason and, having suddenly been pardoned by the President while on the run Bynoe turns up in Linden on a PPP Platform. Well Heavens to Betsy…as the English would say. What manner of man is this! You have to spare a thought for Mark…a long stretch in jail on a treason charge and now he has to watch his alleged co-conspirator snuggling in the arms of the people who put him in jail. It’s enough to send your blood pressure sky high.
Finally, there’s Moses. His crossover definitely makes the biggest political rumble. Moses is by far the biggest PPP political elephant to abandon the Party since Chandisingh and Teekah in the PNC days. For the record he is also the third ex-PPP Minister to ‘jump ship’…after Asgar Ally and, more recently, Henry Jeffrey…another candidate for political grasshoppership. Moses was coming and going – so to speak for some time now. There has never been any love lost between himself and Jagdeo. Moses was the senior party man; Bharrat was the young political turk; and Bharrat won out. It hurt Moses. Not that Moses can be accused of being spiteful. After all he has been railing against many of Jagdeo’s policies for some time now. The question is, will he now land on his feet or has he now marooned himself on a political island. Perhaps November 28 will help answer that question.
