Political Analysis

“If someone points a gun at you….you must shoot to kill” President Jagdeo told police officers at the opening of their Annual Conference recently. 

Well, he has said it. Releasing a statement in which he enunciated his willingness to continue to serve Guyana “in any capacity” and in which he sought to capture his patriotism, Robert Montgomery Persaud, current Minister of Agriculture has more than hinted – if one reads between the lines – that he has presidential ambitions.

During a planning meeting for the launch of GT&T’s current10/10 Tournament it was recommended that President Bharrat Jagdeo bowl the first ball to kick off the event.

The group responsible for implementing the programme under the UN-designated International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD), exotically named the “Central Committee,” along with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, have come up with an interesting programme of activities to mark the occasion.

Corruption in Guyana’s gold mining sector is now quite commonplace according to industry sources.

Quite why information on the government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project is being released in ‘dribs and drabs’ is anyone’s guess.

“There is no, I insist, no breakdown of law and order in Guyana!”

The government, it seems, is finally biting the bullet. We’re importing teachers to teach maths and science because we do not have enough of our own.

Disenchantment and despondency are reportedly rife in the Education Ministry. There are rumours of an internal reshuffle among some of Minister Baksh’s top officers coming on the heels of the appointment of Education Minister Shaik Baksh’s former Technical Adviser, a one-time UG Lecturer, Olato Sam as Chief Education Officer.

We are yet to be given a reason – a good one or otherwise – for Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Jennifer Webster’s $295,000 One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) blunder in the National Assembly.

She blew in just about two weeks ago. Not like a gale as one might have expected, but more like a puff of smoke, wafting around her “comrades” in the PPP presidential nomination race.

There’s no such thing as a perfect budget. There are simply too many people to please.  

A blazing “rum shop” ruckus has erupted between no less a person than His Excellency the President and his political bedfellow and one-time Science Advisor Navin Chandarpal and as the old saying goes mouth open, story jump out.

An open confrontation would now appear to have broken out between the outgoing President and some of the would-be Presidents and their supporters over who should take the candidature.

The PNC’s ponderous political bandwagon now appears to be gathering some measure of momentum in its search for a presidential candidate for later this year. 

What may well be the first campaign advertisement to appear in the print media was published recently.

There is never a dull moment in the cat sparring between      Central Government and City Hal…and things are likely to get worse before they get better with Hammie Green now being not only Mayor but, apparently, harbouring ambitions of being the PNCR’s presidential candidate.

The year that was ended on what, perhaps, was an unsurprisingly tempestuous note.

Faith’s show-womanship, Basil’s lapel buttons and Carl’s calumny are the latest episodes in what is now a ponderous PNCR drama to pick a winner for the 2011 political Grand Prix. 

The PPP’s political heavyweights have trained their guns unerringly on the management of GUYSUCO for committing the cardinal sin of threatening what is now, singularly, the most powerful mass-based organization in Guyana – GAWU.