LETTER: AFC has been caught with its political skirt down

Dear Editor,

The AFC has been caught with its political skirt down and its slip is showing; and it is soiled. For two years they have slept with the enemy and sold its soul for a mess of pottage (borrowing from the Biblical story of Esau and Jacob). After they have just about completely and utterly destroyed any credibility they had with those who supported and pushed them into recognition and government, they are now trying to save face.

About four of the AFC’s executive members sit in the PNC-Coalition cabinet. This includes the Prime Minister; the Minister of Public Security; the Minister of Public Works and; the Minister of Business. They all know of the universal objection to the nonsensical parking meter deal. They know of the illegality of the project. They know who are to benefit from the deal and why. They know that it is a burden on the poor and underpaid Guyanese workers. Yet they allowed a few autocratic, selfish, charlatans, to push forward a PPP-style, crookish, deal and they (the AFC cabinet ministers) said absolutely nothing.

They sat and watched as every process and system was put in place to bring the parking meter to a realization. They heard all the discussions that were taking place to legalize that financial monstrosity. Yet they said absolutely nothing. They waited until all was good and set to formalize and legalize the parking meter deal and then when they can do nothing, or very little, to remedy the situation, they issued a statement in opposition to the deal they allowed to be enacted.

Does the AFC think the Guyanese people are fools? Do they really believe that they could execute such poor administrative judgment and not be punished for it politically? The supporters of the AFC sent them into parliament and then into government to represent the interest of the working-class people of Guyana: not to look after their own interest and for sure not to foster the interest of the PNC (whose people are the beneficiaries of this deal). The AFC kowtowed to the PNC and watched whatever little support they had, erode into oblivion.

Now that the folks are taking to the streets; now that the masses have been provoked in their cry for justice, in the wake of a dictatorial onslaught, the AFC has crawled out of their political malaise. The United Republican Party (URP) wishes to remind the Guyanese people that the AFC has tied its hands when it went to bed with the PNC. They sold their birthright when they collated with a party that has some very unique and questionable approaches to governance.

The AFC has only one option in the interest of the national good and that is to assert itself in the Collation and do right by the Guyanese people, by returning to their posture of being interested in the things that the ordinary man is interested in.  And if the PNC does not want to acquiesce and flex, then the AFC must enact (or threaten to enact) a pull-out of the Cummingsberg Accord. The URP is stating that the country cannot continue to be abused and prostituted by carrier politicians and political cronies who are bent on filling their pockets. The AFC is caught between a rock and a hard place and their true colours are very visible.

Yours truly,

 Dr. Vishnu Bandhu

Leader, URP