Because it has so visibly betrayed the agenda of most of the people who have supported it from the inception, predicting the disaster that will befall the Alliance for Change (AFC) at the local government elections (LGE) scheduled for later this year has become something of a national pastime. So much so, that few people even believe its explanation of why it is going to those elections independent of its coalition partner. In other words, what should have been viewed as normal for a coalition partner is seen as either being the result of compulsion or the kind of political deceit at which the PPP and PNC are masters. The AFC came on the political scene claiming to represent a new political morality but instead has become a textbook case of how quickly political power can corrupt!
Seasoned as I am to political duplicity, I still cannot believe that the AFC is today anywhere near where most of its leaders intended it to be even on election night 2015, but having been, with good intentions, forced into bed with a master capable of making crass political opportunism appear the epitome of self-preservation, good sense and morality, it did not truly grasp the slippery slope one important act of betrayal constituted and the repercussions it could have for the entire body politic.
When coupled with Guyana’s political history, the AFC’s deception and its swift descent into the political morass has made future efforts at social transformation extremely difficult, for although you might not have thought it possible, political veracity has declined even further, leaving the populace with what may well be the only sensible explanation – ‘Wha’ you expect? We all cut from the same cloth!’
