Dear Editor,
THIS letter is a response to Mr. Frederick Kissoon’s contention that if the AFC did not enter into an alliance with the APNU, it would have been able, in the 2015 General and Regional Elections, to increase significantly, its standing with the electorate to the point of winning the elections.

In offering this comment I am breaking a self-imposed decision not to respond to anything written by Kissoon, since, more often than not, his replies have always been a “cuss out” in the course of which the value of the intended polemics, suffers.

In his column of KN Friday, June 14, 2019, captioned “Dead meat selling next to my house tomorrow”, Kissoon wrote, “I honestly …… believe that if the AFC had remained as an alternative third force they would have won the plurality of the votes at the 2020 elections and form a minority government and displace both the PNC and PPP by 2025”.
This bold declaration by Kissoon, in my opinion, is a gross overstatement of events from the popular columnist, social and political analyst. His position is not supported by a consideration of all the factors in the equation that the AFC was faced with going forward, beyond the 2011 elections.

Here are my reasons for disagreeing with Kissoon: (1) the 2011 elections results demonstrated that the Guyanese electorate wanted a change in government. The AFC was empowered by voters to help in that endeavour. Objectively, its leadership had basically two options going forward: (a) to hold to their earlier position that they will never join with either the PNC or the PPP thereby allowing the PPP to remain in power indefinitely, or (b) Joining, as they subsequently did in 2015 with the APNU of which the PNC is the senior party. This coalition resulted in a change in government at those elections.
Having tabled a no-confidence motion in the parliament in 2013 against the PPP government, the AFC, (given the combined APNU and AFC votes) facilitated putting on the political agenda the fall of the government. In so doing, the AFC’s leadership, consciously or unconsciously, placed the party in a political situation where it was left with one credible course of action when the PPP prorogued the parliament. That was to act consistently with the logic of its own motion and the aspiration of the electorate who supported the party and wanted the defeat of the ruling PPP/C.

Apparently, Mr. Kissoon feels that if the AFC had acted as he is now saying and faced the electorate in its own name in the 2015 general and regional elections there would have been no negative consequences for the party. I disagree. I submit here that if the AFC had demonstrated insensitivity to the expressed desire of those voters, who in 2011 supported the party, the backlash for that party would have been tremendous. I am convinced that given the Guyanese voters’ behaviour, once the AFC had not joined with the APNU in the 2015 elections the party would have suffered great losses. A large part of its base would have defected on the grounds that the AFC was not serious about defeating the PPP. It must be borne in mind that the AFC’s multi-racial support was not based on ideology or a long history of mass struggle that cemented the base – therein lies its fragility.
We saw the early indications of this fragility being demonstrated when Raphael Trotman became the leader of the party. In the 2011 elections, the party lost significant votes in the Indian community relative to the 2006 elections when Ramjattan was the leader. However, it was able to retain or increase votes in its African community.

(2) We also have to factor into the political equation that the AFC’s rise to political prominence was aided in a large way, financially and otherwise, by external political forces. This support the party leadership could not depend on indefinitely. Conscious of this reality they made the best of this support before it evaporated. In concluding, it is obvious from Kissoon’s article that none of the above was given any consideration in his analysis of what the AFC’s political fortunes would have been had it contested separately in the 2015 General and Regional elections.

Regards
Tacuma Ogunseye