Ramjattan and co. ‘collateral damage’ politics help seal AFC’s fate

OLD Kai always looks forward to the tales of the AFC’s Prak-a-lak, dutifully carried by the ‘Once-Upon-A-Time’ newspaper. It is predictable, almost scripted from Machiavelli’s book, ‘The Prince’, which outlines the devious and darker side of politics.Clearly, Prak-a-lak is following its contents, where Machiavelli addresses the aspect of whether it is better to be loved or feared. “The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far safer to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.”
The great fanfare that he and Moses of Hendree’s Cure fame, along with a few other stragglers, had basked in when, as ‘Johnnies-come-lately’, they managed to repackage themselves as some sort of value-added product on the political market, has now quickly evaporated before their very eyes.
So Prak-a-lak and Hendree’s boy believed that they would now be better off if they were feared. So, when they instigated the people to violent protests in Linden and Agricola, this was their aim. When they called for ‘no peace’, this was their aim. When they told Guyanese they were ‘collateral damage’, this was their aim. When they sabotaged the national projects and tried to deny our people the Specialty Hospital, this was their aim. When they continue to hold hostage the ammended AML/AFT Bill, this is their aim.
But Machiavelli had warned against the possibility of being despised by the people, as he noted in his book, “…a prince must ensure that he is not feared to the point of hatred, which is very possible.”
The recent revelations that public support for the AFC had plummeted to an all-time low of 4% is testimony to this fact. When contrasting this figure with the fact that this Party received some 10% of total votes in the General elections a little over two years ago, you will find that support for the AFC fell by a dramatic 60%.
There is no clearer indication that the entire leadership of that Party has failed, and failed miserably, to the point where they face outright rejection by a significant majority of their former supporters who have abandoned ship.
This should come as no surprise, as several top members and financiers of the Party were already walking away after bitter public fallouts with the leadership cabal; and today, even their own Councillor in Region 6, Haseef Yusuf, is publicly lambasting them for their crooked ways, and acts of sabotage against the country’s economy.
In Region 2, their Councillor, known as ‘Hot Skull’, has been accused of physically assaulting the PPP/C Regional Chairman in Region 2. Another male Councillor, who is also a teacher, was accused of having sexual relations with school boys. Their Chairman, Nigel the Nightingale, has been exposed so many times that it’s hard to keep track of his scandals.
Hendree’s Cure told the nation how he does ‘cuss up’ his own grandkids; and there are still question marks over the Berbice Bridge land issue; and a handicapped man and his wife accused Prak-a-lak of swindling them. Not forgetting his employers, the infamous Specialty Hospital bidder, and even their former leader, now House Speaker, was entwined in his own land scandal which was exposed by another Prakash.
Then there is the simmering scandal of their ‘bush doctor’, who spent millions in donors money on couple ‘bora, bagee and balanjay’ to feed a handful of people in Berbice, and then after elections, he bought a big fancy vehicle. The stories are numerous for such a small party which just came into being ‘the other day’.
Sadly, it appears that their leaders have lost control of what comes out of their mouths these days, and this is the excuse given when they are exposed for their misleading concoctions.
Maybe it is a rare form of desperation, if there is such a thing, as how else can you explain the comments of Prak-a-lak in the ‘Once-Upon-A-Time’ newspaper insinuating that President Donald Ramotar is afraid of assenting to the final Local Government Bill which will pave the way for these elections because, “…he knows that the PPP gun get dem tail cut.” This outlandish boast is coming from a man who just witnessed a drop in public support of himself and Party by a whopping 60%.
There is a sinister side to this also, as what Prak-a-lak has failed to point out, and which the ‘Once-Upon-A-Time’ paper has refused to question him on is: Why did his party team up with APNU to cut funding for the Local Government Elections in the 2013 Budget if they were so interested in these elections?
If President Ramotar and the PPP were so afraid of ‘getting dem tail cut’, why then would they have placed the money to host this critical election in the Budget, where the opposition had the majority say in passing it, only for them to inexplicably cut it and, one year later, they are now crying and beating their chests about how the ruling party is stalling these elections, in the hope of evoking pity in Guyanese and the foreign people.
The Guyanese public has already been informed by the Head of State that the final Local Government Bill is unconstitutional, and that these areas have also been revealed. It is for the National Assembly to now rectify it, so as President Ramotar could assent to it, as he has assured the nation he would.
Absolutely no mention was made by Prak-a-lak of this version of events, but then again, Old Kai never expected a Machiavelli boy to do such a thing.