Category: Eyewitness

…at noon in Guyana Over the years after the PNC returned to power in 2015 – under the cover provided by the AFC and a handful of one-man parties – your Eyewitness referred several times to the theme of “Darkness at Noon”. It’s the title Arthur Koestler gave to his allegorical novel that described the imposition of the brutal Stalin’s dictatorship over Russia. It alludes to the darkening of the skies when Christ was crucified at midday; something precious was being sacrificed. Today, once again, similar darkness has descended over…

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…in sight Your Eyewitness is reminded of the old saw about the fella who thought at long last – after trekking through the dark – he saw a light at the end of the tunnel – only to discover to his demise, it was actually a train hurtling towards him!! And this is how your Eyewitness’ been thinking all night about this Caricom intervention to oversee a recount of all the ballots countrywide. He has absolutely no problem with the idea of the recount. After all, what could be more…

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…or regroup? So, we have an agreement between the Caretaker President and the Opposition Leader that there’d be a full recount of the March 2 votes cast in all the regions by going into the individual ballot boxes. Or do we?? Word had just gotten out about the arrangement when the Government Commissioners of GECOM insisted the “COMMISSION hadn’t been OFFICIALLY informed about any such arrangement” … and in the end it is the Commission that will have to make the decision!! They truculently lectured Granger on the requirements of…

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…redux on PNC Yesterday, your Eyewitness wrote about the commentators who insist they write with Platonic disinterestedness about Guyanese politics, studiously avoiding the blatant rigging of the PNC, but jumping on their soapboxes to call for peace and love in the streets. Today, we see their same wilful blindness about what or who has brought our country to this sad state, but now calling for “negotiation” between the PPP and the PNC!!! Yes…negotiation!! And what should they be “negotiating” about?? How to bring the PNC into government!! Isn’t this something…

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…exposed If there’s anyone who’d been taken in by caretaker Granger’s milquetoast routine – you know…always in the “right” but “wrongfully” misunderstood and taken advantage of – the chicanery betrayed in his last “address” on the elections should’ve certainly made the scales fall from their eyes!! Like most con men, Granger’s fatal flaw is he didn’t know when to stop with the BS. This time, he laid it on so thick, you could HEAR it falling off and plopping on the floor. Your Eyewitness will hold up his latest excretions…

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…of Granger David Granger, now vying for a second term as President, is first and foremost a military creature. But most pertinently, he imbibed his view of the role of the military from Forbes Burnham, who plucked this policeman from the Queen’s College Cadet Corps, sent him to military school in England, and then pushed him to play a leading role in the Disciplined Forces formed by the dictator. Granger has been honest in insisting that his role model is Burnham, whose legacy it is his mission to complete. Even…

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…SNAFU build rigging Anyone with the slightest familiarity with Guyanese elections – starting from the one that led to independence in 1964 – would know that even so-called “rational” changes in elections arrangements can be Trojan Horses for gaming the said elections. The 1961 elections had been supposed to deliver independence, but the winning PPP wasn’t approved by the West. So, the FORM of the elections was changed from “first-past-the-post” to “Proportional Representation” to ensure the latter’s ouster!! Changes to accommodate a national register and the overseas vote in 1968…

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…for the Disciplined Forces Well, your Eyewitness wasn’t surprised at how smoothly the voting by the Disciplined Forces went – after all they’re the DISCPLINED Forces, aren’t they?? If THEY couldn’t get their act together for a simple act of dropping a piece of paper into a box, then what are we spending all those billions of dollars every year for?? But what he was surprised about was that so many of them showed up to vote – 82%!! That figure’s certainly gonna better the civilian population’s showing come March…

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…by another name Just when some might’ve thought that with less than two weeks to go with the elections, the “obstacle course” that most aptly describes the process following the NCM might’ve petered out. But up comes this latest bombshell from the GECOM Secretariat which has thrown the entire voting system into a tizzy. How can GECOM at the 11th hour – when the cock has already crowed twice – now inform the populace that they’ve decided to “consolidate” the Polling Places into only “official” governmental buildings – and in…

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…for his pension One thing you gotta say about Moses Nagamootoo: he’s sure certainly keeping alive the family tradition of producing spinners!! Stripped of even the mundane powers of the Prime Ministership – much less the promised powerful ones – he was given responsibility for spinning the PNC-led coalition’s dismal record in the Chronic. In a Freudian slip, he dubbed his column “My Turn”, which, of course, evokes what it really was: “MY Spin”!! So, what did he spin this week? NO surprise there – the manifesto which wasn’t a…

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