HAVING FAILED in their dream bid at the 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections to emerge as a so-called ‘third force’, one strong enough to replace the PPP/C in government, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has now announced an ‘Action Plan’ for a new administration that it hopes to lead after the coming presidential and parliamentary elections. Its ‘vision for change’ in 2011 includes a rewriting of Guyana’s Constitution to end the prevailing system of governance with an Executive President. It also holds out the promise of a solution to the epidemic of criminality, among other miracles it intends to perform.
The party’s leader, Raphael Trotman, seems to have been finally persuaded to resolve his long internal battles with Khemraj Ramjattan for the latter to be now the AFC’s Presidential candidate for elections 2011.
And in presenting the AFC’s ‘Action Plan’, Trotman is also marketing, for consumption of the electorate, the promise of “an alternative vision.”
Talk, they say, is easy. Doing the work is the real challenge. Trotman and Ramjattan, as parliamentary defectors of the PNCR and PPP/C,  respectively, should  be left to do their ‘talk’, while dreaming about an AFC government that will be guided, they say, by “a liberal democratic culture.”
According to the ‘promise’ of such a political culture, the ‘action plan’ envisaged for the AFC-led government would be based neither by Marxism/Leninism nor Communism, or even a doctrine “driven by party paramountcy…”
In essence, the AFC’s proposed ‘action plan’ appears to have been crafted with a heavy throwback to the old ‘communist’ bogey days when foreign and local forces combined to battle the PPP.

Funders
In the case of its reference to ‘party paramountcy’ that once drove policies and activities of the PNC, it would be known ,even by detractors of that Party, that such a doctrine has long had to be discarded in the post-Burnham era.
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that much of the AFC’s latest promise to foster a “liberal democratic culture” is linked to the politics of the Party’s foreign-based funders as well as some at home.
Together, they have problems in showing any appreciation for the wide-scale and very visible social and economic developments that have so significantly transformed Guyana, in all major sectors, under successive governments.
The history of achievements would be known by Guyanese of all regions, starting with the visionary leadership provided by the late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, following the historic 1992 elections, to that of current President Bharrat Jagdeo. In between, there was the leadership of the late President Janet Jagan.
It is early days yet for the main contesting parties to make clear either choice of presidential candidate, or reveal their respective election strategies, including manifesto-type policies and development plans.
Nevertheless, it is by no means too early to ask whether the AFC seriously expects the PNCR to be an ally in changing the current Constitution of the Republic of Guyana to remove the provision for an Executive President. 
Who, among current aspirants seeking the PNCR’s nomination as presidential candidate, does the AFC really believe would engage in such a move? Or is this all part of the dreams and political chicanery of the Party’s leader (Trotman), and its indicated presidential candidate (Ramjattan) for the coming elections?