Dog and the Bone

Avarice and greed

The story of the dog and his bone is a good old fashioned Aesop fable of unbridled greed. Already possessed of a hefty bone clenched between his jaws, the greedy dog spied his reflection in a river. Thinking that it was another dog with a bone, he opened his mouth to grab it but his own bone fell into the water. The moral, of course, is that when you’re greedy and avaricious there’s always a good chance you’ll end up losing ‘corn and husk’ – or in this case, bone and shadow.

We’re reminded of this ancient morality tale by the latest shenanigans of the AFC and APNU. They have already captured control of the legislature – Parliament. They confirmed that control by seizing both the speakership and deputy speakership. The greed was already on display for all that had eyes to see. In the past 19 years, when the PPP had the majority in Parliament, they insisted that the deputy speaker come from the opposition benches. This sharing of power by the PPP, of course, was an example of its ‘fascist elected dictatorial’ rule, while the APNU/ AFC’s power hogging is emblematic of their ‘enlightened democratic traditions’. Go figure.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg of parliamentary power: the opposition now controls the agenda of the legislature, functioning of the multitude of committees (select, special, management, standing and presumably, sitting etc etc). And like the dog with the bone, all this was not enough. They’re not fazed, they seldom attended meetings of these committees.

Their excuse? The need to hold down permanent ‘day jobs’. So, here they are looking greedily at the executive benches and slavering over the ‘powers’ over there. But no talk about becoming full-time parliamentarians.

After the population have had a bit more exposure to this political insatiability, which is guaranteed to bring governmental operations to a halt, the president should call snap elections. The greedy and grasping APNU/ AFC combine will have an opportunity to have an intimate understanding of the ‘Dog and the Bone’.

Amateur and professional

We’ve been keeping you posted on the vigorous effort of ROH Corbin to hold on to his sinecure as leader of the PNC by fighting off the challenge by the equally ambitious but irredeemably effete Raphael Trotman.

With a feint to have Trotman drop his guard, Corbin took on ex-Speaker Ralph Ramkarran in a putative defence of the treacherous conniving behaviour of APNU/ AFC, defying all conventions and having Trotman replace Ramkarran as Speaker.

Well, Ramkarran responded to Corbin’s pathetic attempt to score political points by demonstrating what a professional lawyer – a Senior Counsel – is all about. We hope that other newly-matriculated lawyer, Christopher ‘Suspenders’ Ram will also study Ramkarran’s riposte in the Stabber News. While it will certainly confirm they have as much chance of making senior counsel as a snowball surviving in hell, they may learn something. One hopes.

For instance, the conflict of interest in Trotman’s insistence in holding on to the post of Representative of the List of the AFC while warning of PPP’s ‘machinations’ to inveigle the members of that list to cross the floor.

This is a contingency that the Speaker would have to play a decisive role in resolving and yet these legal lights cannot see a conflict? These lights have to be extremely dim bulbs.

Joke of the week

Battered by this never-ending rainfall, we Guyanese can be excused for being a bit down. We could use a laugh. Well, we were provided with one by no other than Mr Ambition himself, Speaker of the House, Trotman. After meeting with President Ramotar (at the latter’s invitation) Trotman announced that he is hoping to meet Leader of the Opposition David Granger! After those weeks of meetings to filch the speakership, what is there to say now? Thank you?