Ants in the pants
WITH general elections looming here next year, there are many people in the opposition camp looking like they have got ants in the pants.
Now, those of us who have found the occasional ant in the pants know how troublesome that can be.
That’s why most of us take the trouble to vigourously shake and brush our pants before donning a pair. We do so to avoid the bites and to avoid being made to look like clowns doing an ants in the pants dance in public.
`General’ Larry Platt, 63, had much better pants luck with his comical `American Idol’ audition `Pants on the Ground’ song and dance.
He has since become an Internet sensation and a performer with the popular line, “Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.”
From all accounts, `General’ Platt does not appear to have an up close and personal acquaintance with the Guyana opposition camp, so he could not have composed his song with them in mind.
But from the way things seem to be going in that camp, the leaders must sure be wishing they were in `General’ Platt’s pants because they look rather uncomfortable in theirs and in danger of dropping them on the ground.
It looks like a lot of red ants and `cop cop’ scurrying around and biting in those quarters.
A few years ago, one camp said it was breaking from the bigger camp to make a new camp because the old camp was bad news.
That saw some big song and dance about change and breaking with the old. There were even some bitter exchanges between the old camp and the new camp, with the new denying that it was talking about merging again with the old.
Then the other day, news broke that there was trouble in the top of the new camp and as the rumblings grew, word emerged about hush hush talks to broker an alliance deal between the new camp and the old camp.
Now it’s out in the open — the new camp has lit a campfire and has started a camp dance to dance back into the old camp.
Nothing much wrong with that; after all, it’s all politics in which, they say, all things are possible.
But the ants in the pants antics are causing confusion.
The new camp wants to lead the dance with the old camp, which the top ones in the new camp admit is the bigger and more powerful camp. So, they jumped ahead to name two of their top ones to lead the proposed alliance with the old and bigger camp.
So the small camp, which is also the `new’ camp, wants to go back into the folds of the old camp, but it wants to be in charge.
And then they said all this talk about the old and new merging into something new was inspired by the People’s Partnership in Trinidad and Tobago which saw the landslide election of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Kamla is their inspiration but President Bharrat Jagdeo dropped in to see her for talks this week and now there is more trouble in the opposition camp here.
“Guyana is extremely poised and very buoyant at this time in their economy; their natural resources are tremendous. Whilst we continue to put our eggs in the energy basket, oil and gas, Guyana has really gone the way of many other areas”, Kamla said at a press conference with President Jagdeo.
She noted that Guyana has been successful in food production, adding “it is one of the sectors of the economy we would like to see grow in Trinidad and Tobago and we will be able to partner with Guyana in terms of experienced expertise in that regard.”
No one should blame the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) if it seizes on that commendation from the new Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister of its economic policies.
Economic performance is a mainstay of electoral campaigning here and in other countries and Kamla may have done the Guyana opposition camp a disfavour by recognising the success of the economic policies of the Jagdeo administration.
The ants in the pants dance in opposition circles here is likely to get even more intense unless they succeed in some serious shaking and brushing.