…stand up and be counted?
As of the time of writing this piece, the PNC are yet to declare their support of President Ali’s firm rejection of Maduro’s mad decree to once again threaten to seize Essequibo and its sea resources. As one letter writer in this newspaper pointed out, this isn’t the time for the PNC to be sulking. For almost 60 years, Venezuela (since 1962) has held its fabricated tale of the 1899 Arbitral Award that defined our common border was “invalid”, over our necks like a sword of Damocles.
During that time, the PPP never wavered in supporting the PNC on the border controversy, even though they’d been inserted into Government in a British-US electoral coup against the PPP. That’s what patriotism is all about. In 1965, the PPP warned the PNC Government against going along with the British to sign the Geneva Accord. The PPP correctly saw it as a Trojan Horse that would be used by the Venezuelans to keep us distracted and off balance. But the PPP supported the PNC Govt when in 1966 the Venezuelans invaded our half of Ankoko Island – which they still occupy.
And so with the 1970 Protocol of Port of Spain – through which there was to be a 12-year “moratorium” on the controversy. During that time even though the PPP disagreed with Burnham cosying up to the Venezuelans then led by Perez and negotiating with them to support the Mazaruni Hydro in exchange for “a land settlement”, they yet gave “critical support” to the PNC. They warned that the Venezuelans were playing possum. And when Perez somersaulted and pulled the rug from under Burnham after he’d visited Georgetown, and blocked the World Bank support for the hydro project, the PPP didn’t gloat. They supported the call for “not a blade of grass” to be ceded.
Overall, it must be acknowledged that after Burnham’s manipulation by Perez, the PNC have maintained a firm resolve on the Venezuelan border controversy. It was the PPP that proposed that the matter be resolved through judicial intervention and it was the APNU/AFC Administration that followed up on it. Even though they couldn’t resist using the matter to hide the US$18 million Exxon oil contract bonus!
So the PNC’s silence at this time is troubling. It appears that Harmon – who sees no incongruity in denying the PPP’s legitimacy to government after the elections while he accepts his legitimacy as Opposition Leader – might be pouting. But this will be another litmus test on the PNC’s qualification to lead Guyana.
They failed the “democratic elections test” abysmally when they proved unable to resist their historic compulsion to rig elections.
Will they stand up and be counted?
…hire more lobbyists?
As your Eyewitness mentioned yesterday, the PNC (Harmon and Ramjattan) announced they’ll be trying to persuade the incoming Biden Democratic Administration to reverse the US stance on the March 2 elections here. They’ve evidently convinced themselves that the blatant rigging by Mingo for the PNC will be overlooked by Biden simply because he’s a Democrat and Trump was a Republican!! Could this be because a Democratic Administration under Lyndon Johnson allowed Burnham to rig back in 1968, this present PNC lot thinks rigging is a Democratic Party “thing”!??
What a bunch of wankers!! But they should know that the condemnation of the rigging wasn’t just by Republicans but by a lot of Democrats. Notably, there’s Democratic NY Congressman Gregory Meeks, who was elected to Chair the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. Maybe the PNC honchos have forgotten that Meeks had personally visited Guyana and called for an immediate declaration of the elections when Harmon was dragging his feet with “anomalies”?
They’ll have to write a new backgrounder for their lobbyists!
…implode?
We know the lines of fissures in the PNC – those marking off the Granger/Harmon lot; the Volda Lawrence motley crew and the Black Nationalists foaming at the mouth!
Will the Venezuelan crisis force the issue?
