THE AFC has been on a wild chase here in Guyana, jumping from one blunder to another. They had leadership problems, such as who will be the presidential candidate. A senior official of the party also resigned, accusing the party of not being democratic. And just last Wednesday the AFC was again making no sense at the WPA Groundings.
Now the party is promising to take their show to Washington D.C. and New York. The AFC should not have too much hopes of meeting anyone of real importance and they should get advice from the WPA folks who failed to get an audience in Washington not so long ago.
Even if it gets an audience at the State Department, the AFC might want to raise a number of governance issues with the U.S. It should raise the issue of Palestinian rights; the more than 100,000 people Iraqis who were killed by the US-led coalition invasion; the practice of renditions; the denial of rights for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay; the vicious new-right anti-immigrant hysteria in the U.S.; the fact that the unemployment rate among African Americans is twice that of whites; the fact that residents of Washington D.C. itself do not have voting rights in Congress; the fact that U.S. consumption of illegal substances is the key driver of the drug trade in the Latin America and the Caribbean; that the massive small arms exports from the U.S is injurious to thousands of people in Latin America and the Caribbean; the plight of the more than 30 million Americans who are unemployed and whose employment insurance will run out soon; the catastrophic deficit – spending in the U.S.; the more than catastrophic long-term debt of the U.S. This is just a short list.
It should also complain that the extreme right wing has penetrated the Tea Party movement and media outlets, and that a significant part of the whole effort is to demonize President Obama. It should also let the State Department and Susan Rice know that we have similar ‘shock-and-awe’ writers and media outlets here that demonize anyone here who do not share their views.
The AFC should introduce the politics of Guyana with some clarity. It should report that, to date, the AFC’s performance in parliament is poor by any standard. It must state that the party can express any opinion in Guyana without fear of reprisal.
The little trip planned by the AFC is probably best explained by the fact that the party has lost so much ground here that it has no option but going to Uncle Sam to cry for a bail-out.
When all is said and done the AFC people will have to come back to Guyana and face the Guyanese people. One must wonder with what dignity they will stand up and say – we went and complained to the Americans!
The AFC probably wants the Guyanese people to feel that it has special access to the Americans. Someone should remind them that President Jagdeo and President Obama have already met.