…PNC’s hypocrisy and mendacity
The PNC launched their campaign at D’Urban Park and it was a pathetic exercise on so many fronts. Let’s take Granger’s “vision” for Guyana, in general, and his constituency in particular. Back on Emancipation Day of 2018 – before the NCM knocked him for a loop! – he said he was speaking from his heart and was going to give some tough love to the folks gathered at BV. Said he:
“Do not be wicked and slothful, go out and use your talent to enrich yourselves and your children that is economic emancipation. No matter how much we sing and dance in the final analysis, our lives will be determined by how we make our living. If we make our living by hanging around the corner and liming at the Guinness Bar, we will be forever poor but if we go into our farm, go into our workshop, go into our schools, we will be able to bring prosperity.”
Though criticised by some, many felt that in offering these home truths, the youths, especially who frequent the “Guinness Bars” and whiled away their time with “wine, women and song”, might be encouraged to put their shoulders to the wheel and prepare themselves for the new economy that beckons. But now that he was exposed in the aftermath as willing to hold on to power by any means necessary – including making a mockery of the Constitution! – he turned the launching of his party’s elections into the biggest party in town!! It was the Guinness Bar so large that the revelry could be heard all the way in Mc Doom!!!!
The launch was the classic “bread and circus” of the Roman Emperors to keep the masses distracted from their lives of quiet desperation. To rub in the point, Granger’s grand entrance before the extravaganza was every bit as ostentatious as Nero arriving to amuse the aforementioned masses by throwing in, for good measure, some “state enemies” to the lions!! In this case, the enemy, of course, was the PPP!
Another bit of hypocrisy was Ramjattan’s boast about their coalition being the best vehicle for inclusivity when the PNC didn’t even give him the courtesy of confirming that he was their Prime Ministerial candidate!! He was introduced simply as the “AFC Leader”!! Can Ramjattan say if he is or isn’t the PM candidate? Is this too much to ask after all the fuss he created about getting the job as a condition for the coalition??
Ramjattan also promised a bridge across the Essequibo River!! Five years ago they promised one across the Demerara River.
All we got was a G$153M bill for a sole-sourced plan, which was promptly junked!!
…PNC’s mendicancy
If it’s embarrassing to see grown men cry for votes, it’s even worse to see them begging on their knees. And that’s what dominated the speeches – and even the songs – at the PNC campaign launch!! Now it’s not as these men took vows of poverty like the monks of yore and became professional mendicants going from door to door for scraps to survive. In fact, their very first act upon sliding into office was to give themselves a 50% raise on an already generous salary scale.
But maybe THAT fact explains the abject begging we witnessed at D’Urban Park: they don’t want to lose the big bucks, perks and especially those outriders!! And most of all, the opportunity to stick their hands under the table for businessmen they MUST meet face to face!! From the opening calypsonian pleading for the audience to “Give David some more time” to Granger grovelling, “We ask you for five more years to complete what we have started”, it was a river of tears!!
But the people know it’s crocodile tears!!
…PNC’s antidemocratic nature
Calling it “nonsense”, Granger vowed to remove the NCM from the Constitution. Never mind it’s a cornerstone of parliamentary governance.
It gives the peoples’ representatives the power to remove a tyrannical government!!