…the masses
The AFC are struggling to survive, and it ain’t pretty! Like all victims of con men, they’d fallen for the wiles of the PNC-as-APNU because of their greed — their greed for power, their greed for money, their greed for flesh, and their greed, PERIOD! Even though then party leader Khemraj Ramjattan had predicted they’d become “dead meat” if they coalesced with the PNC-as-APNU, their greed made them plunge ahead.
They would’ve become “dead meat” because the people who supported them knew that the PNC wasn’t to be trusted. The people had over thirty years of (bitter) experience with the PNC to reach that conclusion. It didn’t take long for the folk wisdom to be validated. In fact, right after the elections, Prezzie so diluted the Cabinet via expansion with Junior Ministers that the vaunted 40% of the Cabinet promised to the AFC wasn’t worth squat!! Supporters jumped off the ship!
The Prime Ministership for Nagamootoo, which was supposed to be bulked to Hulk-like proportions, was so stripped of any relevance that he became the archetypical “97-pound weakling” into whose face everybody kicked sand at the beach!! More supporters jumped off their ship! And so it went — like when it was revealed that there was a “Nassau Accord” between the man who would once again become Leader of the AFC — Trotman — and Prezzie. Was there any doubt after he’d been selected by the PNC-as-APNU as Speaker in 2011 – over Nagamootoo, nominated by the AFC??
And now comes the final straw, if there were AFC followers clinging to the dead meat: the revelations that both Trotman and Ramjattan had advised Prezzie to reject the second list and make his unilateral appointment! The revelation came out after emails on the subject were released by the AFC Canadian support group, who broke with the party over the high-handed way the party was being led.
The revelation was even more destructive against the background of the AFC Leadership INSISTING they played no role in the President’s unilateral selection of (Chief?) Justice Patterson. In addition to the e-mails, there was — of course — the presence of AFC Leader Trotman being at State House when Jagdeo arrived to be informed about Prezzie’s unilateralism!
Ramjattan’s e-mails were also interesting to their old rank and file, since they confirmed that after a period of strained relations in the top leadership, they were all as one after the Patterson selection!!
Ramjattan’s expression of joy at the last circumstance — even as his party had evaporated — signals that he and Nagamootoo are prepared to play the loyal lapdog to the PNC-as-APNU.
They will be the window dressing now that the WPA is expendable!
…the Public Service
The Government made a big ‘’to do” about resuscitating the Public Service Appellate Commission (PSAC) after a hiatus of over a decade. This lacuna had denied the Public Servants “justice” – since they had no one to turn to if they were wronged! Not much help forthcoming from the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), since its president-for-life is always MIA – and of late had been bought out through high appointment!!
But at its first meeting with the press, the PSAC revealed the sad (and sick) truth: it was just a toothless poodle, unable to sanction anyone it had determined had screwed Public Servants!! All it was empowered (?) to do was listen to the complaints of Public Servants, empathise by looking concerned, and hope that the wrongdoer did the right thing.
If they didn’t — which is more often than not the case — tough luck!
So how about at least giving them a small whip?
…Georgetown citizens
After the euphoria of the 50th Anniversary Independence celebrations – lubricated by billions from the treasury and businessmen making strategic “political investments” – the City Council promised a return of our Garden City.
The City’s once again covered with garbage; the Central Govt is bailing City Council out, and the Mayor is abroad! The more things change…