Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has described the A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Alliance as a “love affair” that was forged out of convenience, and would not work.
Speaking last evening at a rally at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, the Attorney General said the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the controller of the coalition, the APNU, is not known to be democratic, and it might not be long before the AFC gets a rude awakening.
According to Nandlall, the PNC is haunted by its own past and has been trying desperately to ‘shake off’ its abysmally poor economic and human rights record in Government by trying to hide behind name changes.
He told a gathering of supporters that first the party changed from PNC to PNCR, but when that failed, it moved to PNCR-I Guyana, but that also flopped. But the PNC did not stop; it changed to APNU and it is now APNU+AFC.
Nandlall said the constant change of name of the party has not changed its character of being violent and destructive to achieve power by any means possible, contending that the fight at the elections is purely one between the PPP and the PNC.
The AFC, he said, has been ‘swallowed up’ by the PNC because party leader, retired Brigadier David Granger ‘loves’ AFC Executive Moses Nagamootoo, choosing to ‘consummate’ the APNU and AFC union on no other occasion, but Valentine’s Day.
Through the ‘love’, he said Granger promised Nagamootoo the Prime Minister position if elected to government, with two Vice Presidents, the Ministries of Agriculture, Home Affairs, Natural Resources and the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, and Nagamootoo saw nothing afoul, but grabbed with both hands, because it was too ‘sweet to refuse’.
But the Attorney General warned that ‘Wha is too sweet does hut goat belly’.
If the ‘PNC’ wins, he said, it will be a different ball game, one that the AFC will deeply regret as Granger knew what he did as he is smart, but Nagamootoo seems to be not.
The PNC, Nandlall said, is not known for sharing power, but is known for doing everything possible to keep it. He pointed out that the PNC did join with The United Force (TUF) in 1964 to keep the PPP out of power, but after a year it showed its true colours.
It ditched the TUF and passed a law banning coalition after the elections, and thereafter rigged every election to stay in power until the ‘free reign’ ended in 1992.
In the deal brokered by the AFC and APNU, he said, what Granger effectively did was give Nagamootoo an opportunity to ‘build a building in the sky’.
The AFC telling its supporters that they will pass a no-confidence motion against APNU if they are short-changed by the coalition, Nandlall said, is ‘utter nonsense’.
The AFC with 12 seats in Parliament, he said, cannot successfully pass a no-confidence motion against APNU, and the claim that the PPP/C will support them if they do, he said, is equally outlandish.
But, he pointed out that Granger, as President, has the power to recall parliamentarians in the APNU+AFC Alliance, and should the AFC file a no-confidence motion against the APNU, it is hardly likely it will see the light of day.
In fact, he said, by then the most sensible thing Granger will do is recall Nagamootoo, as he has the power to do it, and this is the reality of the AFC in the AFC+APNU Alliance.
This is why, he said, the May 11 elections is a fight between the PPP and the PNC, urging the gathering to vote solidly for the PPP to ensure progress and development continues.
By Tajeram Mohabir