…about Harmon
Your Eyewitness had wondered why Opposition Leader “Lil Joe Harmon” had appointed Roysdale Forde to act in his stead back in early September. He also was supposed to be taking a break, like his boss David Granger, leader of the PNC. Now, your Eyewitness had thought it more than passing strange that the two big guns of the Opposition would suddenly drop out of sight – especially when the situation was so tense within and without their party. What was going on?
Well, your Eyewitness just heard that, while Granger remained holed up at Pearl, Harmon had jetted off to GHANA!! That’s right, Ghana!! Said it was a “Roots” journey. You know, going back to the place from where, as Brother Bob said, “Old pirates, yes, they rob I/ Sold I to the merchant ships/ Minutes after they took I/ From the bottomless pit.” He said he visited the “door of no return” in Ghana – the door through which the slaves from the Gold Coast – as Ghana was then called – passed through to board the Middle Passage’s ships of horror.
So what was it? In the middle of a fierce political struggle, when his leadership was being pilloried by some impatient upstarts, he had an existential crisis? These things do happen, you know. You wake up every morning to one crisis or another swirling, and pretty soon you get dizzy! A visit to the motherland – the cradle, so to speak – can be therapeutic. But listening to some of the conversations from his base when the news broke revealed they were more cynical about the trip.
They wondered whether it was a coincidence that right after Lil Joe hopped over to Ghana in secret, VP Jagdeo did the same! Could something be afoot? We know that in Guyana, Pres Ali’s PPP Govt has stubbornly refused to consult Harmon as the Opposition Leader, unless he recognises that the former is legitimately and legally in place. There was then a stalemate. So, was this some sort of effort by Ghana – after all, their President had visited Guyana not so long ago – to broker a deal between the PPP and PNC?
Or, even more insidiously, to broker a deal with Lil Joe?? Now, for that to happen, you need some face-to-face meetings; you can’t keep these sorts of assignations a secret in gossipy Guyana! Your Eyewitness could imagine Joe’s constituents crooning the Lou Rawls classic:
“Ooh, I bet you’re wonderin’ how I knew/ ‘Bout your plans to make me blue/ With some other guy you knew before/ It took me by surprise I must say/ When I found out yesterday/ Don’tcha know that I /Heard it through the grapevine”
Yes…the grapevine!!
…a change is gonna come
Well, President Ali’s been in office for more than a year. He’s had an opportunity to evaluate the team they put together to take our country finally into the 21st century. In that time, he’s met several world leaders and interacted with their “sherpas” – as the staff who arrange these meetings are called. This would be especially true on this last trip to Dubai, which is a modern miracle that – as was explained in this space yesterday – was created out of a village of sixty huts made of palm leaves after 1945!
He would’ve seen the commitment and the knowhow necessary to achieve that dream – or any other dream. He has to’ve started looking around and evaluating his team for the job ahead. If your Eyewitness from the outside can see that several of them are lacking, surely, he – with his more intense interactions – would’ve concluded the same by now.
The time has come to start making some changes. That alone will motivate the slackers!
…PNC Congress before Xmas?
This newspaper quoted a “source” saying that the PNC Congress to finally elect a new leader will come off on Dec 11.
Somehow, your Eyewitness doesn’t see this happening. All the ducks aren’t in a row!
