…of the neglected spouses
With elections coming before year end – according to what Granger evidently told his Minister Cummings – the Caretaker Coalition’s mini-parties hanging onto the PNC’s skirt have begun to scramble for a return engagement. A political coalition’s like a marriage with a prenup – but one where the agreement on the terms of the prenup has to be redone before each election! Things change!!
At such times there can even be a divorce – so matters can get pretty messy – think PNC/UF!! They can get even more hairy when, as in this case, the coalition’s like one of those Russian dolls that open up to reveal different levels of identity. Here the major partner in the marriage is APNU and the minor partner is the AFC. But APNU opens up to reveal that inside there’s the mammoth PNC along with a number of smaller dolls.
There’s the JFAP: the TV party that most folks see as a comedy show and a protest option when they don’t like NOTA – none of the above. They never got a seat at any elections and are thankful for the (very) junior ministry! There’s also GAP, which once received a seat from “hinterland votes”, but has faded into oblivion; Steve Scott’s NFA, which no Guyanese can say what the initials stand for and finally, the WPA, which has pimped off the name of Walter Rodney for decades, only to betray his memory by coalescing with his murderers.
So, what’s going on coalition-wise on the eve of the elections? Well, a month ago, the AFC voted to have their leader Khemraj Ramjattan be their PM candidate. Now they were taking a lot for granted – to even assume the APNU/PNC wanted to have them on their coattails once again!! But that decision set off a fierce infighting between the erstwhile besties Nagamootoo and Ramjattan for the nod. In the meantime, the Cummingsburg prenup’s being “renegotiated”.
Within the APNU Babushka, the WPA’s always asserted they are gamechangers and deserved more than they received. Pretty much like the stunt they pulled with the PPP in 1992 – when they ended up losing “corn and husk”. Your Eyewitness figures it’ll be déjà vu all over again!! But in the meantime, they’re doing the PNC a favour by insisting the AFC got much too much the last time and should be cut down to size. It goes without saying whatever’s cut off should go to the WPA!!
And the other Babushka “parties” inside APNU? They’re being smart and playing possum. That way they figure their names will remain to ensure “diversity” without too many demands!!
Just keep your eyes on the AFC vs WPA catfight!!
…just doesn’t add up
Your Eyewitness has been trying desperately to get his head around the numbers tossed around by Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix in the “Case of the Vanished Haitians”. He must admit ever since the Ministry was hived out of Ramjattan’s bailiwick and given to the PNC “Bannuh”, he’s been very leery. Since when did records of births, deaths and migration ever interest the PNC – unless it was to fiddle with elections?
Anyhow, Felix finally claimed that of the 7306 Haitians unaccounted for up to now, only 391 were now missing since 6925 had entered Brazil via the border at Lethem where “except for 129, the majority left.” Now let’s give Felix the benefit of the doubt and accept he received from Brazil the numbers who’d entered. But how in the world could he be told how many left??
Left Boa Vista? Nope – no system to capture that!! Left Brazil? Well, Brazil has over 100,000 Haitians…how can they keep tabs on these specific 6796 who’d entered from Lethem??
Something’s fishy. And it needs to be checked out!!
…of the forgotten bottom
Just as we did with the NGSA, the country went bonkers over the high flyers in the CSEC and CAPE results.
As your Eyewitness has been saying for years, we’ve forgotten the bottom 99%.