Dear Editor:
I say People’s National Congress (PNC) in the headline intentionally because it is they that will suffer in the next general elections and not the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), as I believe that APNU will be abandoned, as it should have been long ago.
Reasons for this I have expressed to the several leaders in the PNC who meet periodically. APNU comprises certain non entities as political parties, even non-essentials. I think the party, the PNC, was extremely charitable to give those others free seats. None could have won a seat in Parliament other than the PNC.
Therefore, in the long run, it is the PNC that its supporters and those on the ‘fence’ will lose faith in. The recalcitrance, the hard-line, the toughness the APNU is showing in not supporting the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill is a kind of militant mentality.
Soldiers love to hold their ground, and when death is upon them in battle, and there is no other alternative, they retreat, and retreat they will eventually!
Opposition Leader David Granger, the soldier, held his ground to bring down Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee via parliamentary boycotts, no votes, and walk outs of Parliament, but eventually he failed miserably, and in reality placed the PNC in an embarrassing situation, as the PNC (lost in the APNU confusion), had to retreat, as the Guyana Police Force was starved of its requirements for law and order, and the citizens of this country were in confusion as to their safety and security.
Granger has to understand that in politics one has to be a diplomat and not a soldier. While some techniques of the military can be taken, in politics it is diplomacy that is the master art.
The PNC is undoubtedly a great national political institution, born with a name at its founding. Who gave its leaders the right to murder that name? They have made the name weak.
In my opinion, this needs to be corrected. They should have had a party referendum before agreeing to the name of APNU and going in that direction.
The people of the country are not feeling the crunch of the recalcitrance in its full blast yet, caused by APNU’s refusal to support the bill, but when they start to suffer, they will turn to the PNC, not APNU, as APNU in reality is a façade, a mere face mask that will disintegrate.
It is at Congress Place they will congregate, and when the elections season steps in, they will feel the bitter reality; unfortunately, they will lose many of their die hard followers. Granger, Sir, you’re taking the PNC down the path of destruction. I advise that you resign.
Even when they somersault, as they will, they will lose many admirers and hardliners. Their people will give them a reckoning they may not recover from.
The AML/CFT Bill is a most important and serious law that must be complied with for international sanity, and well-being, but one which the so-called APNU continues to object to. In my opinion, the game of playing games is unnecessary to prove that they are powerful, and make the government of the day look weak.
To think they can get all they want. The sanctions that Guyana is facing are nothing compared to what will be the reality if we are blacklisted by the international community, and if the loans and grants dry up.
Then banking internationally will be impossible, money transfers will freeze, and many will lose jobs, as industries will close or minimise operations, etc.
The people of Guyana cannot forget the whole banning of food items, particularly flour and the like, which led to an amazing growth of illegal wealth by smugglers, and the export of cash by every and any means.
I ask the people of Guyana if they recall the days when Guyanese could not pass the airport with anything more than US$25.
One could not go on a holiday with anything of value, not even a piece of jewellery except the marriage ring, and that had to be small. Jewels and monies that were seized were used as bribes in order not to be charged.
I have a feeling that there is indeed a deep conspiracy to suck the government into committing an atrocity similar to the flour ban.
APNU will have to somersault or live to be cursed by this nation forever for bringing untold, unimaginable hardships.
He who forgets the past is bound to repeat it.
Sincerely,
Roshan Khan
Guyanese patriot