…PPP better talk
We have some interesting situations brewing in Guyana right now over who will – or will not –- TALK to who. That’s Guyana for you!! There’s the matter of that nurse’s wildcat walkout for risk allowance in the face of the COVID pandemic – not to mention a 50% raise in salary and a host of other fringe benefits. The Government says the nurses should’ve TALKED to them first – after all they’re “essential workers” and covered by an Act of Parliament that says so.
The nurses responded that they’ve been TALKING to the Government for months and months, yet nothing was done. Hold it!! The Government shot back…we haven’t been here for “months and months.” And it turns out the nurses were indeed TALKING to the Government – the PNC Government!! Problem was that Government didn’t TALK to the new PPP Government when they were booted out on Aug 2nd. And the issue fell between the cracks.
But among all the TALK about TALK, the PPP raised an interesting question: how come the nurses and their union – the GPSU – had TALKED for months with no response yet they didn’t strike?? Well, we know the answer to that question, don’t we, Dear Reader?? Like everything else in Guyana, it’s all about politics. Obviously, neither love nor TALKING make the world go round here! So what’s ahead? Will the nurses return to work? Will the Government then TALK to them? Your Eyewitness would hope so, but it’s unlikely. It does look like the PNC’s preparing for a reprise of their big GPSU strike a lá 1999. It ain’t gonna be pretty!
The other dispute over TALKING concerns Opposition Leader Harmon and President Ali. Harmon wants to TALK to Ali, but Ali says he won’t do so until Harmon quits saying the PPP Government is “illegitimate”. But your Eyewitness has another question: what is it Harmon wants to TALK about?? On the question on legitimacy or illegitimacy of the Government, the PNC’s filed not one but TWO elections petitions. Shouldn’t they be getting ready to TALK to the Courts? What can the President do about their case?? There’s the separation of powers doctrine which the PPP, unlike the PNC, takes very seriously! The Executive can’t TALK to the Judiciary about pending cases!
So what else could Harmon want to TALK to Ali about? That he’s contrite about whipping up race hate on the West Coast of Berbice after he and Granger ostensibly went to comfort the families of the murdered Henry cousins? Hardly…that a subject for a confession TALK between him and his priest!
And he wouldn’t want to TALK about power sharing, since he’s sure they won!!
…they’ll spread the PPP thin
After the storm and fury the PNC provoked in the wake of the Henry boys’ murders in West Berbice, you’d think they’d lay low after Guyana was pushed to the brink of open ethnic war. But that’s never been the PNC’s style, has it? They thrive in the confusion and mayhem of ethnic hostilities. So just when you though matters had simmered down on the eastern front as the nurses protest in the West, news just reached your Eyewitness that tyres are burning on the public road through Number 5 village – the same locale where their earlier mayhem started.
Now, whether this escalates or not, the tyre burning should remind us of how fragile the peace will be every day for the next five years. The PNC aren’t interested in being part of any democratic order in Guyana – once they aren’t in power. We saw this after the NCM and for another five months following the Mingo rig.
The Government must stand firm and not bow to the PNC bullyism!!
…Volda remains out
If you had any doubts Volda Lawrence is still in Granger’s doghouse, Winston Jordan’s throwing her under the bus for not dealing with the health sector’s issues on compensation should dispel them.
Who are her (PNC) friends now?
