Enough, yet!

Dizzy

The nation has had enough with this Speaker’s nonsense… but the opposition seems determined to keep the pot boiling. It might be that it is a case of (in the local idiom) “never see… come fo see!” Having achieved a majority in parliament (obviously beyond their wildest dreams), while they’ve gotten their act together, they just can’t get their story straight. First the act. It is very clear that very early in the day, Trotman had the inside pole on the Speakership. While APNU floated Debbie Backer, the more germane move was Granger’s unequivocal nixing of Nagamootoo from the AFC word go. APNU knew Ramjattan would be willing to disown Nagamootoo once he knew Trotman was acceptable to them. In this scenario, Ramjattan had a clear shot at sole leadership of the AFC. So what if the AFC spirals into a black hole or Nagamootoo also, for that matter? So Trotman kept his powder dry. He announced he wanted no more ” partisanship” ( That ought to have been the smokinggun tip- off.) Parliament was a ” maybe”. He felt that mysterious delicate condition coming on etc, etc. The Trotman Speakership was a Guyanese tragedy playing out with the same slow- motion inevitability of the Greek version. No one save Nagamootoo was surprised. The melange of ambition and spite can make one blind.

Now the story. First was the signal by APNU that they would go with Trotman and have Backer step aside. There was the talk of the ” hard bargaining” by Ramjattan. Now we have Granger claiming that APNU only backed down on Backer at the last minute – when the PPP refused to ” back Backer”! And Backer claiming that APNU is deserving of hosannas for going with Trotman and securing both the Speaker and deputy speaker! Please opposition fellas. Appoint some high plenipotentiaries to get the story straight. You’re making the Guyanese voter dizzy… and you know? Dizzy voters get confused as to where to place the X.

MoUs

While MoUs aren’t exactly IoUs, they do have their commonalities. IOUs, we all know, indicate that one party owes another something or the other. But Memoranda of Understanding ( MoU) also can perform the same task. Take the MoU the AFC and APNU have been working on for a while now.

The public, including the supporters of the two protagonists, haven’t been told exactly what are its terms as yet. But it’s not too hard to guess. It will summarise what they will owe each other every time one scratches the other’s back. You guessed it: a reciprocal back scratch.

Making that easy will be that old political maxim: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Since the AFC and APNU have made it very clear that the PPP is the enemy, we know what to expect.

Up like cork

Ex- speaker Ralph Ramkarran appears to have found a second wind. After being nipped in the PPP’s presidential nomination Derby by Donald Ramotar, he dropped off the radar during the campaign. But he’s back in the swing recently. First was his gaffe when he allegedly said that it was not anyone’s business as to what GuySuCo was paying its foreign lawyers.

While we understand the source and mischief- making intent of the question, a Speaker of 11 years experience should perhaps have been just a tad more diplomatic? That’s why this column backed you for the job Ramkarran. But Ramkarran made up for his lapse when he queried his successor Trotman as to whether, in addition to stepping down from the leadership of the AFC, will the Artful Dodger do the same with the representative of the list position he also holds for the AFC. This powerful position makes him as partisan as the other.

Ramjattan of infinite ambition and little loyalty, we note, agrees with Ramkarran. Ah! Would that ambition were made of sterner stuff. Eh, Ramkarran and Ramjattan? ( The making of a law firm?)