…checkmated?
Folks are wondering why the PNC is raising such a storm and fury over the elections date – after their immediate acceptance of the consequences of the NCM. What’s the difference even a year would make? Some say they wanted “first oil” to start flowing, so that they could dazzle the electorate with a spending bonanza rivalling those of the “pork- knockers” of yore!! Money to burn! Literally!!
There COULD be something there. Exxon’s never deviated from predicting first oil in March 2020, and the coalition Government’s full five-year term would’ve ended in April, for elections to be scheduled by then. But in one or two months of production, there wouldn’t have been much money flowing into the Treasury to dole out those US$5000 cheques to the masses that were touted by the WPA’s Clive Thomas.
So if this theory is to pan out, the elections would have to be delayed to at least the end of 2020. Is this what Granger and his crew have in mind? Let’s see. But in the meantime, we can do worse than consider the words of Granger himself about the 2020 elections. Towards the end of 2017, Granger was in Atlanta, Georgia in front of the PNC’s Overseas Chapter, which included hundreds of his ex-GDF faithful. He was relaxed and among friends. And this is what he said about the immediate future in that unguarded moment:
“Whatever you will choose to discuss today and the weeks and months to come, I think there are several questions that you have to ask yourself as you look to the future.
You have to ask yourself how did the PNC gain office in 1964. Ask yourself how did the PNC remain in office, and what did it do during that period. Ask yourself how the PNC regained office in 2015, and ask yourself how would the PNC retain office after 2020.”
So let’s answer those questions posed by Granger, shall we? To his first one, the PNC gained office by coalescing with the UF. And “how did the PNC remain in office”? Well, we all know that it was by RIGGING ELECTIONS, of course!! How did it get into office in 2015? By coalescing with the AFC. So how will the PNC retain office after 2020”?? Well, if we follow the logic of the questions posed…duh! …it’ll be by RIGGING ELECTIONS!!!
And your Eyewitness believes THIS is the reason for dragging out the elections date. Like the good military planners and strategists they are, Granger’s men would’ve been working on a plan with a timeline.
And Jagdeo’s NCM masterstroke threw it off track!! Grrrrr!
The best laid plans of mice and men…!!
…explained
But one has to also ask why are Granger and the PNC crew willing to take such risk of rigging elections again? You just have to follow the unguarded blogs of PNC folks: it’s all tied to their view of the “kind of people” in the PPP. Let’s start from the head honcho himself, David Granger. At that same meeting with the faithful in Atlanta, he got a big chuckle when he referred to the PPP’s heckling while he’d addressed the National Assembly.
He snickered: “I was greeted in the National Assembly by a crowd of vulgarians!” Yes, vulgarians – persons who make ostentatious displays of wealth, and are often poorly educated or lacking in refinement!! It’s more than just an elitist disparagement of ‘PPP people’. It was explained by Nietzsche as ‘ressissentiment’: having deep anger and envy at a set of people who were once your social inferiors, but who’ve now superseded you!
“How can such people be ALLOWED rule in the age of oil?? They’re beyond the pale!!”
…for protests
Asked what’ll happen after the NCM saga plays out and there are protests in the streets, Public Security Minister Ramjattan assured a global Guyanese audience that any elections violence will be “quelled”!!
From a man who couldn’t even get his choice for CoP approved!!