…on AFC
Well, well well…today’s the 4th anniversary of the Cummingsburg Accord, which AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan and PNC/APNU’s David Granger signed on Valentine’s Day 2015 to seal their coalition for the upcoming elections. Valentine’s Day wasn’t coincidental – it was supposed to symbolise the love that now supposedly flowed between the two parties after Ramjattan’s initial recoil – on the ground that such a union would make the AFC “Dead Meat”!!
Was it an epiphany that changed Ramjattan’s mind on the way to the Georgetown Club where the Accord was declared?? Was there a booming voice from above explaining the error of his prior conclusion? Some thought the catalyst for the volte face was much more mundane: the Accord spelled out a detailed “power sharing” arrangement between the two parties if they won the election.
The PM’s office – which would go to the AFC’s Nagamootoo – would be injected with a massive dose of testosterone to chair Cabinet and be responsible for governance!! Additionally, the AFC would get a whopping 40 per cent of all Cabinet Ministries!!
For a party that had received only 10 per cent of the vote in the previous election, this was a politician’s wet dream!! But right after elections, when they DID win, we found out the real motivation for the change of heart – nothing but cold, hard cash and perks galore!! Ministers – including Ramjattan – were given a 50 per cent salary bump and PM Nagamootoo’s PM’s salary was topped up to ensure he’d pip the special AG’s salary.
The PM’s house, which was perfectly OK for Sam Hinds for 23 years – had to be spruced up at the cost of mega millions to satisfy Nagamootoo, who boasted about his “50 years of service to the working class”!! Classy he was not!!
These wads of cash and perks, of course, muzzled their mouths, so that when the testosterone shots weren’t given – “being not in accordance with the Constitution!”, said Granger slyly, to Nagamootoo and Ramjattan – who were both supposed to be lawyers, not even a MUFFLED word was uttered!! Now some might say they were struck mute because if they protested, it might betray them as only lusting for office.
Fair enough…but what about the 10-point programme they grandly announced on their betrothal day?? Like, for example, the first one: “The introduction of a meaningful constitutional reform programme geared towards improved governance and fair representation.” Wasn’t this the AFC’s claim-to-fame issue?? Well, we know they didn’t utter even a squeak – much less a squeal – on THAT betrayal of principles!!
And so we have the two leaders now shamelessly on their knees pleading to be “taken back” by the PNC, after their abuse!! Is anyone surprised?
…on the “Audit Minister”
The PNC-led coalition didn’t only have to pay-off the AFC honchos: they had to do something for the four one-man parties that latched onto the PNC to provide the fig-leaf of “APNU” for the PNC. But being in THAT specific spot to “cover” the sins of the PNC, the word “abused” hardly describe their treatment!! One of them – the representative of the TV party JFAP, Jaipaul Sharma – was tasked with collecting the results of the 50 audits that were farmed out to “nail” the PPP for their supposed “corruption” while in office. He was supposed to be a Minister within the Finance Ministry, with just THAT specific portfolio!!
He duly passed on the audits to SOCU but there still hasn’t been a single conviction for fraud, much less theft!! In fact, with THE TWO TOP INVESTIGATORS OF SOCU – parachuted in by the British from foreign!! – resigning because of allegations of “fraudulent” behaviour, Sharma is distraught.
Was it he, or his father, who proposed “put thief man fuh ketch tief man”??
…on Carter Centre
With GECOM suffering from severe constipation – they’re consuming funds like an elephant but sh*tting like a bird – the Carter Center’s back to check on their baby. Imagine one PNC Commissioner calling them “strangers”!! Still mad about 1992?
