Driven by desperation, AFC attempts to awake from its slumber
— but does more harm than good

OLD Kai still cannot believe what he has read. Desperation is clearly making the AFC leaders delusional. This small party, which has seen its support drop by a dramatic 60% — from 10% to 4% – is facing extinction just a few years after it entered the local political area with much public fanfare.

Faced with this reality, the small leadership cabal is suffering from a serious bout of panic attack because, at any moment, if elections should be called, that could quite possibly signal the end of the political careers of the hierarchy of this party. Remember that these are people who have been driven by ambition and an unending and unquenchable thirst for power and influence, which have apparently caused the AFC leaders to abandon all sense of rationality as they cling to anything and everything to keep their heads above water.

This is best exemplified by the party’s Sunday column in the ‘Once Upon a time newspaper’ on Guyana’s economy, written by ‘Flour boy Sase’ and ‘Hendrees boy Moses’, who apparently wrapped himself with a bed sheet for a robe and went out in his backyard to preach, thinking he could convert his neighbours; while Sasenarine decided to accompany Moses, thinking that flour will fall from the sky like Manna. They were both wrong!

They decided to piggyback on the recent APNU statement by declaring that “Guyanese need leadership and statesmanship, not propaganda trash and cuss-down pantomimes”, and this statement is coming from the the likes of “Shut yuh suh-and-suh mouth Moses”, and “Haul-u-ass Prak-a-lak”.

Of course, they have displayed excellent statesmanship by trying to gamble casino-style with the future of our country and their blackmail brand of politics on the AML/CFT Bill.

Our economy’s growth rate also came in for attack; the contribution of all our people towards ensuring Guyana recorded some of the highest GDP growth rates in this part of the world for the past few years was ridiculed by the AFC.

Old Kai is mesmerized by the barefaced hypocritical nature of these people, who had the gumption to talk about investments with tears in their eyes. “Investments are down as at September 2013, and are expected to decline in 2014; and this is a real problem….”

These are the people who have refused to heed the many complaints by the private sector about how they are being affected by the AFC/APNU’s continued refusal to pass the Anti-Money Laundering legislation; they have refused to hear a petition by the Private Sector in the National Assembly; they have refused to have the Private Sector witness their deliberations in the Special Select Committee; they have attacked each and every single initiative by the Government to create an enabling environment for more investments, such as their initial vilification of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, the Specialty Hospital, and the Airport Expansion Project; they have consistently attacked the private investors of the Berbice River Bridge, so much so that they publicly called for the investment to be expropriated by Government; and yet they have the gumption to talk about investors being hesitant to come to Guyana now.

This is the devious nature of these people.

They then regale us with the delirious notion that “The AFC has become, over a very short time, the conscience of our people, especially our young people; and we see urgent need for a national conversation on the way forward…” at the same time, they lamented that “the latest estimated poverty rate is closer to 40 percent of the population, with 70 percent of the hinterland residents (mainly Amerindians) continuing to live in wretched conditions.”
No one knows for sure where they derived this figure, but it is likely it could have been from another of their infamous ‘Dick Morris’ polls, which had predicted they would have won the elections in 2006.

But let us look at the facts, and their track record on these very areas they want to now give us the impression that they are concerned about.

With regard to the continued development of Amerindians, it was the PPP/C Government which began providing them with several programmes and initiatives which were cut from the budgets of 2012 and 2013 by the AFC and APNU.
This is what no less than the former Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council (NTC), Ms Yvonne Pearson, had to say in April 2013 about the behaviour of the Alliance For Change in its members’ efforts to cut $19B of the $25B budgeted for the Low Carbon Development Strategy, which catered for several projects in Amerindian areas: “That is where the indigenous people stand to benefit. Think about it, our electrification project, and the communities that have not received as yet. I wonder if the members of the combined opposition took the time off to go to those villages, talk to the people who have received and are expected to receive; it means a lot to those people out there, because they don’t have access to electricity, like the city. It means a lot to their children also now they can study in the nights.”

Recall now how the AFC, with Moses and Sasenarine, claims that they are the conscience of the people, especially the youths. Pity they did not remember this when they were denying Amerindian children something as basic as electricity.

But it does not end there. Ms. Pearson also spoke about their efforts to cut the PPP/C programme of training Amerindian youths in entrepreneurship. “If we are talking about getting into business, entrepreneurship; and in the budget we were hoping to train over 200 young people, and that is also at stake. So what are you telling us? That we are not important? I would like to say that we are very much important, an important part of this population.”
The Amerindian leader then hit the nail on the head by announcing that, “With all these (AFC/APNU) cuts targeting Amerindian development, the opposition is clearly showing that they do not care for the indigenous people. The residents in the various villages have spent a lot of time planning and deciding on various projects they would want to get involved in, whether tourism or agriculture. These projects would not only sustain Amerindians, but create job opportunities, thus making life much easier for them.”

But, of course, the AFC leaders are now telling us they are concerned about unemployment, particularly in the Amerindian communities. These are the very people who glared at Guyanese they were putting on the breadline through their budget cuts, and told them bluntly that they were ‘collateral damage’.

Let us also not forget that it was the AFC which filed a motion in Parliament to cut $300M in developmental assistance being given by the PPP/C in targeting our youths in December, 2013. Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai had this to say about the action of the AFC: “The financial request was a direct response to the needs identified by the Amerindian leaders themselves, to ensure children have access to an education, food and health care…It also enables villagers to be self-sufficient in trade and agriculture through the development of roads and access paths.”

Media reports had also indicated that the Amerindian Affairs Minister had explained that the funding catered for the provision of transportation to indigenous villages, to ensure children do not have to walk or paddle miles per day in order for them to reach to school, or access health facilities. Also, due to the remoteness of villages in the hinterland, the funding would have made it easier to transport agricultural produce, as she noted that “Agriculture is the backbone for many of these villages. To deny these communities transportation is to deny them economic and food security.”

But the AFC would now have us believe that they care about the vulnerable in society. So, rather than claiming to be the conscience of society, the AFC, led by Moses, Prak, Nigel and company, has actually shown that it has absolutely ‘no-conscience’ when it comes to denying our people benefits just so they can turn around later and blame the PPP/C, in order to score cheap political points.