I AM tempted to tinker with the imagery of Tom Jones’ song, “green, green grass of home” with the description, “green, green mass with gold,” to capture the beauty and energy of the crowd at the launch of the APNU+AFC 2020 Elections Campaign last Friday.
The green and gold represent the dominant colours of the six-party coalition, which is being led by President David Granger, and is set to be returned at the upcoming March 2 polls, for its second consecutive term as the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.
The coalition first came to office at the May 11, 2015 elections, after securing a one-seat majority in the National Assembly over the PPP/C, which had held unbroken, one-party power for 23 years.

FAKES AND FRAUDS
The demise of the PPP/C regime gradually followed the death of its charismatic leader Cheddi Jagan. It came about mainly as a result of unbridled corruption, shamefully caricatured as “Pradoville One” and “Fraudoville Two”, and the rigging of the inner-party processes since 2001 to elevate party political puppets as presidential candidates.
At its campaign launch, the coalition rightly highlighted its achievements since 2015 as its central message. It also appealed for the progress to continue under a re-elected President Granger. However, it did not lose the opportunity of impugning the leadership credibility of its closest rival.

This will be for me the 12th elections in which I have been involved as a player. I do not rule out the traditional mudslinging during the husting. But this time around the focus seems to be not so much on personality, but about principle.

When the coalition leader referred to “fakes” and “frauds,” he was raising a fundamental issue that candidates ought not lie about their academic qualifications.

PLATFORM CONTROVERSY
While both the electorate and observers would hope that the campaign will highlight the central manifesto promises of the various contestants, it cannot escape attention that a huge platform controversy would be the claimed qualifications of the PPP/C presidential candidate, Mohamed Irfaan Ali.

He has placed in the public domain that during September 2001 he was awarded a diploma, styled “BA Degree in Planning”, from an institution named “Business College, West Demerara Chamber.” His Certificate of Graduation was signed by Fred Sukdeo as Professor and Chancellor, and by Joshua Safeek, as Chamber President.

While unflattering reports have been circulating against both the professor and the president regarding their brushes with the law, it appears that their “business college” never existed. This is the “fake” and the “fraud” that unfortunately will intrude on the debate.

It had marred elections in several other jurisdictions. For example, during 2016 Indian Supreme Court Justice A.R. Dave and Justice Nageswara Rao quashed the election of a Manipur congressman for falsely declaring that he had an MBA degree. The court also directed the Election Commission to issue orders to obtain from each candidate for election to Parliament personal information, including all educational qualifications.

The premise for the order was that voters had a fundamental right to know about the educational backgrounds of people contesting in elections, and that a candidate could be set aside for making false declarations.

With the selection of a retired Brigadier as his running mate, Ali might have added figuratively, a mark to his campaign; but that would not give any fillip to his tainted credentials.

He needed to come cleaner, if not better, to match the image of David Granger as a highly qualified academician, a journalist/publisher, historian, an accomplished military leader and a successful, incumbent politician/president. It is therefore not without merit that the APNU+AFC campaign associates with its presidential candidate the attributes of “honesty” and “integrity.”

SEA OF SUPPORTERS
The green and gold flags, buntings and banners, and the sea of supporters in campaign uniforms, have given the APNU+AFC coalition an early advantage of appearing to be fully mobilised, and ready for the vote. The battle chants, “Forward Ever; Backward Never”, a familiar refrain from the Grenadian Revo, exude confidence and optimism, and strong resolve to re-elect the coalition – this time with a larger majority.

In another five days, by Nomination Day on January 10, we will know how many parties will be in the race. Like all previous Guyanese elections there would be, like a hot 20/20 match, lots of pace, bounce as well as spin. As the old saying goes, this race is not for the swift, but for he who endures to the end!

I would expect also that the campaign could move away from the old hat of ethnic appeals, and that the focus should be on the agenda of national development and social cohesion. In this regard, I applaud the coalition for a fantastic pick as a platform speaker, the captivating Juretha Fernandes who, all in one person, projected the image of a youth, a woman, young mother, offspring of our Indigenous peoples, and an intellectual. That is the winning message of inclusion and balance that would appeal to the electorate on March 2 instant.

CARNIVAL SHOW
Two of my grandsons, Wayne and Mark, who were here for the launch told me afterwards that they have never seen anything like that in the United States, or anywhere else. For them, the coalition launch was like a carnival show — full of colour, movements, sounds and rhythms.

I could not have kept my daughter Angela and her husband Tony away from this show, and they brought with them from the Mid-West loyal coalition supporters, Ralph and Zena Joseph, my old-time Whim friends. They all sensed a coalition victory.
I look forward to the campaign with great enthusiasm. As I told the media on Old Year’s Day: “I am not about to disappear… I am a team player. I play for my village — I am a Whim boy; I play for my country — I am a Guyana boy; and I play for my government – I am a coalition man.”

Now, I echo the battle refrain, “Forward to Victory!” La Victoria Siempre!