…and Pharisees
Remember the American saying – meant to epitomise their democracy – “anybody can become President”?? They proved it by electing Trump!! Well, we can’t say the same for Guyana. With the CCJ’s decision on the Richardson case, nary a soul – save one dissenting Justice – spared a thought about the thousands of Guyanese citizens who’re now barred from running for the presidency of Guyana.
The mandarins of the CCJ decided that removing these Guyanese from offering themselves to the supposedly SOVEREIGN populace doesn’t crimp our democracy!! But then again, when Burnham was rigging elections for 28 years that also didn’t affect our “democracy”!! Like old people say, some see what they WANT to see.
But all the Opposition can talk about – and mostly gloat – is that Bharrat Jagdeo, General Secretary of the PPP, is barred from being their Presidential Candidate forever. But this in itself tells a story – a story of how petrified the Opposition is of facing Jagdeo at the polls.
Jagdeo is the single, most popular leader of the PPP – just beaten by a whisker – by a coalition of the PNC and five parties forming APNU and then with the AFC!! Your Eyewitness won’t even speculate on the foreign “influences” in the mix!! Talk about “double banking”!!
But there’s got to be more than just Jagdeo being a formidable electoral foe: the bitterness underlying their glee has to spring from some deep wells of hatred in the Opposition’s collective psyche.
Where did this come from? We don’t have to look very far…just remind yourself what happened when Jagdeo became President. Firstly, he was leapfrogged by one of the founders of the PPP – Janet Jagan – over several old guards, who she would’ve known very well.
These dinosaurs in the PPP were the first wave of haters – because of what the choice said about them!! A big chunk of these haters are now in the Opposition – like Nagamootoo and Ramjattan – and their bitterness has spiralled out of control.
Then of course, there’s the PNCites. They originally figured the very youthful Jagdeo wouldn’t be able to stand up to what the PNC knows best – brute force and ignorance!! Hoyte launched his “slow fyaah; mo fyaah” strategy and was confident that Jagdeo would fold.
He didn’t…and there was hysterical weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the PNC camp. They upped the ante with an armed frontal attack by “Freedom Fighters” based in Buxton…but Jagdeo still didn’t buckle.
He’d taken an oath to defend Guyana by any means necessary – and he didn’t flinch from keeping his work.
And that’s why the Opposition’s so ecstatic they don’t have to deal with Jagdeo anymore!!
…and sugar workers
The PNC-led Government showed its true colours when they arbitrarily fired 5700 sugar workers. The latter had long been a thorn in the PNC’s side as faithful supporters of the PPP and the PNC went for the jugular. Two years down the road, there has been a frenetic public relations effort to show they’re “taking care” of sugar workers through five initiatives. The sad and pathetic bottom line, however, is that not even 100 jobs have been created – especially as had been promised by leasing land to the fired workers and facilitating their transition into cash crop farmers.
But what brought home the callous attitude of the PNC towards sugar workers is the announcement that GAWU has had to resort to the courts to demand that GuySuCo and their Government owners, pay the remainder of the 50 per cent still owed to the fired workers. At the time, the Government said its coffers were empty.
But what do they say now that it’s revealed they paid $265 million for a bottom house warehouse??
…on NGSA
Everyone will be oohing and aahing over the top one per cent of the NGSA cohort. But why not spare a thought to the more than 50 per cent who can’t add or subtract.
Is this deliberate to prevent future generations from checking the PNC’s profligacy?
