Dear Editor,
Never mind that geographically Guyana is outside of the hurricane zone and has not been hit by a serious earthquake, a visitor coming for the first time would never be able to tell that the calamity that is Guyana is manmade compliments of the PNC and PPP.
It is often said that a society deserves the leadership it gets, and nowhere is that adage more true than in Guyana’s case. Call it what you will – apathy, fear, cowardice or opportunism – the two major racial groups remain trapped in a vortex that since Guyana’s independence in general but specifically in the past decade-and-a-half has benefited mediocre self-serving politicians without a moral compass. Blessed with bountiful natural resources, the national patrimony is now in the hands of kleptocrats and oligarchs who have risen in the past decade.
Charitably put, David Granger has been a major disappointment on many fronts as leader of the majority opposition party, but never more so than at the recently concluded PNC Congress. Given the discipline required to lead the army, one of the nation’s top institutions, one would have expected him to stamp his imprimatur as leader on an organization crying out for strong competent leadership. Instead the PNC learnt nothing from the most recent kangaroo Congress and could not distinguish themselves from a private club that exists solely to benefit members of the PPP’s network of family and friends.
Most tellingly the APNU, the major opposition party in parliament, has yet to fully embrace and endorse the AFC’s call for a no confidence vote to rid Guyanese of the albatross that is the PPP around their collective necks. Even more interesting is the pronouncement made by former PPP member Ralph Ramkarran after the results of the most recent census showed a decline in the Indian population. Mr Ramkarran noted now would be the time for the PPP to seriously consider (in other words the other times involved just lip service) shared governance, ostensibly so that the PPP could remain in power. I don’t think that Mr Ramkarran was part of PPP corruption, but he has never been a fair arbiter of Guyana’s affairs.
So now we come to the junior opposition party in parliament, the AFC, leading the charge to oust the PPP from office along with a lawyer in private practice giving what appears to be sound advice on constitutional reform prior to a no confidence vote, so that the opposition parties can form a decent government.
Again, the APNU is yet to pronounce on whether they’re all in to dislodge the PPP and seek justice for the damage inflicted on the national treasury and the psyche of nation. Guyanese deserve better, but will only get it when they permit themselves to believe they deserve better.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Jason
