-says current performance of  parties a betrayal of the opposition
FORMER People’s National Congress Reform-One Guyana (PNCR-1G) Member of Parliament Anthony ‘Tony’ Vieira, in his latest commentary, has charged that there has been a betrayal of the opposition by the two main opposition political parties, the People’s National Congress Reform – One Guyana (PNCR – 1G) and the Alliance for Change (AFC).
In his commentary, Vieira made it clear that recent actions by members of both the PNCR-1G and the AFC are indicative of as much.

Lashing out at the AFC, Vieira singled out actions of the current Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and Mrs. Sheila Holder,  which he said went against collective positions taken by the opposition.
He explained that with the introduction of the Integrity Commission and what he described as the opposition’s lack of confidence in that body, it was agreed by opposition parties that the body would not be recognised.
“The opposition expressed no confidence in the Integrity Commission…and decided that none of us would provide any[of] them information…until we saw a properly constituted and autonomous Integrity Commission we would not recognise it or file any of our returns,” he said,
However, despite that position, Vieira noted that in March this year Ramjattan agreed to supply his information to the Integrity Commission.
Turning his attention to Holder, the commentator said she has supported the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), rather than back the opposition’s position regarding the Telecommunications Amendment Bill.
The bill essentially seeks to reverse the existing monopoly procured under the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) licence obtained in the 1990s, and mainstream technical and regulatory practices for the landline and mobile services’ spectrum management, pricing, and inter-connection.
There are also several locally-owned companies reportedly named in the draft legislation which will be allowed to serve as telecommunications service providers in the liberalised sector.
“At numerous select committee meetings, Sheila Holder voted with the PPP and did not support the opposition. Now we are told that of the four existing companies which will benefit from Jagdeo’s reorganization of the telecommunication centre, Sheila Holder husband’s company will be one…the vilest betrayal of the opposition,” he said.
A point to note is that the AFC, via a press release dated October 2008 on their website, opposed the same Bill.
The press release said, “This Bill is intended to regulate for security purposes only, the trade and movement of SIM cards. This Bill’s presence is very disturbing for two especial reasons. On the one hand, it places in our considered opinion, a heavy burden on the suppliers and retailers of these cards and in the context of Guyana and the operation of our society will be extremely difficult if not impossible to comply with the strict requirements of recording, storage and sharing of information. On the other hand, we believe that the provisions of the bill, represent a clear and present violation of the right of all Guyanese citizens in that too much disclosure of  information, which is already in the possession of the Administration.
“The AFC is far more likely to join the PPP, than to join the opposition against the PPP. Their performance so far shows this quite clearly,” Vieira charged
Vieira posited that the politics of the Alliance for Change is the reason he chose to leave the party in the period leading up to the 2000 elections.
In an older commentary that was aired in August of 2006, Vieira said: “I joined the AFC since I believed that a third force was the key to removing race from Guyana’s politics and I saw everyone who were not PNC or PPP as potential members of this third force…there is only one enemy right now, one party which I have decided has lost the moral integrity to rule me and it is they that I will carry the fight to.”
Following his conviction that the AFC were the “enemy” as he called them, Vieira joined the PNCR-1G in 2006 and was elected to the National Assembly as the Shadow Agriculture Minister. He was also a member of  Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee and the Chairman of the Economics services Committee.

PNCR-1G FAILURE
In a more recent commentary, dated April 15, 2011, Vieira said, “I never joined the PNC, I was in a coalition with them on the One Guyana platform because of my personal popularity with you the public, but I had great difficulty working with them.”
That said, his latest commentary, Vieira stressed that supporting the PNCR-1G is not an option.
He expounded on the fact that the party’s Presidential Candidate, Mr. David Granger, is “not right” for the party.
“They (the PNCR-1G) had five candidates and at the end of the process Granger, supported openly by the PNC and Corbin, emerged as the winner…Granger only barely tipped Greenidge in the elections by around 13 votes…there should have been a one-off between the two men, Greenidge and Granger,” Vieira said.
Vieira, in April this year, returned to Guyana after putting up most of his holdings here for sale and migrating.
In 1983, Mr. Vieira pioneered the first television broadcast station in Guyana for which he was awarded the Medal of Service. He is also the former Director of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU).
Since June 2001 the Tony Vieira commentaries on Guyana and the Guyana situation have been aired in Guyana on VCT channel 28 weekly. The commentaries examined the social, economic, political, administrative and judicial structures of the country, among other issues.
He belongs to a family that has made significant contributions to the public service and is the son of Joe Vieira, whose business acumen and expertise have been of great importance to the development of Guyana in the agricultural sector generally, and sugar, particularly.
Vieira himself is a former Administrative Manager within the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) group of estates and a trained Agronomist. He was appointed field superintendent for technical matters in 1965 after obtaining a Diploma in Plant, Anatomy and Physiology in Trinidad at the Tropical School of Agriculture and the University of Guyana. He was promoted to Assistant Field Manager in 1969 and Field Manager in 1973 and finally Administrative Manager in 1976 at the Versailles Sugar Estate.
After serving with the AFC and the PNCR-1G he resigned from the National Assembly effective January 1, 2010.