THE Alliance For Change (AFC) has run out of leverage in its negotiations with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and come Nominations Day, the Party is in for a rude awakening.This is but one of the 2015 Election’s prophesies of former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, who for the first time since demitting office three years ago, took to a public podium yesterday and berated the Political Opposition ahead of the upcoming General Elections.
He suggested, too, that Head of State, Donald Ramotar, should have taken a firmer stance in his dealings with the hardline Political Opposition.
LIST LEADER
Jagdeo was at the time addressing the annual memorial gathering at the Babu John cremation site of the late Party Founders, Dr Cheddi Jagan and his wife, Janet.
Taking the AFC to task over its decision to partner with APNU, which he insists is simply the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR) in disguise, Jagdeo pointed out that the two, APNU+AFC, will have to submit one list, with one leader of the list.
The former president predicts that Opposition Leader, Brigadier (rtd) David Granger will be the one selected as Leader of the List, which position determines who goes to Parliament.
According to Jagdeo, it had to be either naivete or desperation on the part of AFC to link up with APNU, after having misled those people “who believed Ramjattan and Nagamootoo really cared for them.”
The former president suggested instead that all the leading AFC members cared about was themselves. “They have secured the Vice-President and Prime Minister position for themselves,” he said.
Jagdeo, in rallying his troops, said: “Let me tell you something, they are so naïve…When they choose a Leader of the list, and I suspect it’s going to be Granger… Remember, they contesting as one Party, so the Leader of the List decides who goes to Parliament.”
According to the Former President, “They (AFC) are going to be in for a rude awakening; a rude awakening.”
Jagdeo recalled that the United Force “had it in the past, and they (AFC) will get it, because they don’t have any leverage anymore.”
APNU+AFC+PNC
According to Jagdeo, there will be no more AFC after Nomination Day. “There is no AFC; there is a PNC; one ticket they have to go with,” Jagdeo said as he sought to edify his party’s supporters.
The former President urged party supporters to not be fooled by the names AFC+APNU. “It’s only to fool people; there is only one list of Candidates they can put up,” he said.
He reminded that there can only be one Leader of the List. “And Granger, I predict, will be the head of that list,” he said.
In this situation, Jagdeo posits, should any member of the AFC be kicked out of Parliament then there is nothing any of them can do about it.
“They have no leverage,” said Jagdeo. “There is no AFC, there is no AFC Parliamentarian; there is nothing…It’s naivety or blind ambition that caused them to even ignore sensibility,” the former president asserted.
He made it clear that all will witness this as “we warned in the past elections that this is going to happen, they are going to collaborate and people didn’t believe us and now you are seeing it happen.”
According to Jagdeo, “It’s going to get even worse for them.”
KICK ASS
Berating the Opposition notion that it preaches change, the former President questioned how this could be.
“(Khemraj) Ramjattan been around for donkey years, (Moses) Nagamootoo been around, (Carl) Greenidge been around, (David) Granger been around, (Lance) Carberry been around, Oscar Clarke been around, the whole bunch…Sharma been around,” said Jagdeo.
Jagdeo stressed that the only thing that has changed is the opposition’s name and chronicled that in in the 1992 Elections, the opposition bloc contested as the PNC, in 1997 the name changed to PNCR, in 2001 it was PNCR/1 Guyana and in 2011 it was APNU.
“Now the APNU+AFC, they’ve been changing their names,” said Jagdeo who added that such a cosmetic change does not address the substance of the political Opposition.
“Change has to be a real thing,” according to Jagdeo, “not a rhetorical gaff.”
Jagdeo used his address to the gathering to also surmise that given the opposition stances, “the past three years must have been a nightmare for Ramotar.”
He noted that “every plan that the Government has put forward they have tried to stymie. It was at this stage the former president in turning to address his successor said “Donald you are a democratic man, sometimes we need to administer something else and kick some asses too.”
(By Gary Eleazar)
