THE decision by the Alliance For Change (AFC) to form an alliance with A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) has raised some eyebrows nationally, but for many Berbicians it is more than a frown; for them it is a betrayal of a principled agreement they made with the Party.

They told the Guyana Chronicle that in 2011, they voted for the AFC as they wanted to see change, contending that the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) at the time had become complacent, and negligent to their complaints about poor roads, drainage and irrigation, among other issues.

For the past three years, they said, they were hoping that the AFC would have risen to the occasion and at least bring some change in their lives by working with the PPP/C, pressuring them to look into their concerns with urgency.

WOKE UP FROM ‘SLUMBER’
What happened, this newspaper was told, was that following the 2011 Regional and General Elections, the ruling party did manage to wake up from its ‘slumber’, but the AFC was more focused on ‘stopping them to breathe’.
While they expressed satisfaction over the pressure brought on the PPP by the AFC, they maintained that the small party was more taken up with hammering the PPP into the ground, with no consideration of who suffers.
WENT A BIT TOO FAR
For them, the AFC was all about shooting down any Government project which they believed would make the Donald Ramotar Administration look good, but they took matters a bit too far when they wanted to vote down money for GuySuCo in the 2014 Budget.
Region 6 is home to thousands of sugar workers as well as thousands of others who benefit from the industry, directly and indirectly.
At the 2011 elections, an estimated 20,000 Berbicians, many of whom are believed to be supporters of the PPP/C, did not vote at all, possibly due to their disgruntlements with the ruling party.
But the AFC, which had reportedly failed to get 1,000 votes in Berbice in the 2006 General and Regional Elections, obtained 11,634 votes at the last elections.
According to former People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Executive, Joseph Hamilton, the small party was able to secure a large number of votes in the Ancient County as many PPP supporters there were deeply disappointed at the way Moses Nagamootoo departed from the party.
They felt, Hamilton said, that Nagamootoo, a long-time PPP Executive was “pushed out” of the ruling party, and voted in sympathy of the party he joined, the AFC.

THOSE DARK DAYS
Some Berbicians, who spoke with Guyana Chronicle last Thursday, did say that they were sympathetic with Nagamootoo, but they still have memories of the ‘dark days’ of the PNC.
Many of them did not want their names to be mentioned, but Uttrawattie Kanhai, a jovial single-mother of three and vendor at the Port Morant Market after some reluctance, agreed to speak with us.
Sitting behind her greens and vegetable stall in the spacious enclosed market, taking in some fresh air at the western entrance, Kanhai said she heard reports of Nagamootoo’s uneasy relationship with other PPP party executives, but thought that he should have stayed in the party.
This newspaper enquired why, and was told by the smiling mother that he should have found a way to work out his differences with his comrades since most likely he would have been a victim of the PNC dictatorship.
The 40-year-old Port Mourant resident, speaking to the Guyana Chronicle as she kept looking out for buyers who were trickling in at 14:00 hrs, said the country, including Berbice has improved tremendously since the PPP/C came to power in 1992.
She said that as a girl going to school, she remembered “Moses”, who hails from Whim, as a popular figure, recalling that back then, the cry for the “return of democracy” was vibrant and reverberated throughout Region 6.
The vendor said in those days, the roads were in a deplorable state, schools and other public buildings were in dilapidated conditions, services were poor, jobs were difficult to get, children used to go to school bare feet and carried their books in plastic bags as their parents could not afford to buy shoes and book bags.

NO FORGIVENESS
She said that there is still need for the creation of more jobs in Berbice, but will not forgive Nagamotoo for now “being in bed” with his oppressors, who in her view, cared little for certain people.
Over at the busy Rose Hall Market, a diminutive Savitree Mangray also shared similar sentiments as Kanhai, saying that Nagamootoo should have worked out his difference with the PPP, but nevertheless said Berbicians voted for the AFC in 2011 because they wanted change.
When asked if she is satisfied with the work of the party, a stern looking Mangray stared at this reporter, and in a grave tone said: “How I gon be satisfied with them when dem blacking everything (in Parliament), the Government can’t move… Ramjattan and Moses a real disappointment… an look wah dem do, them jine with PNC, them gat no shame, dem all fuh themselves.”
Mangray, a mother of three grown children, said neither she nor her family will be supporting the AFC at the May 11 elections, but stressed that the PPP should do more to provide jobs for children leaving school as many of them are unemployed.
This, the 48-year-old believes, in a way is responsible for crime and other social problems in Berbice.
Narine Dhanraj, a teacher of East Canje, unlike Kanhai and Mangray, was more forthright in expressing his views. He said that the coalition is bad for the AFC, predicting that many of the persons who voted for them, including former PPP/C supporters, come May 11 will be returning to the ruling party.
Since the alliance was announced, former AFC General Secretary Sixtus Edwards and member Balwant Persaud have resigned from the party.
“The AFC has deceived the members of the party by aligning with the APNU… the AFC’s Executives are just selfish …the leaders of the AFC are just concerned about getting into Parliament and holding positions,” he said.
But AFC Leader, founding member and Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman said on Friday that the loss will not affect the party, claiming that for every Sixtus Edwards and Balwant Persaud lost, hundreds of persons are joining the party. Both he and APNU General Secretary Joseph Harmon expressed confidence that the alliance will defeat the PPP/C at the May 11 polls.

NO CONSULTATION
Dhanraj said too that the party never consulted with supporters on the decision to form an alliance with APNU and its leaders, including its Region 6 Parliamentary Representative Veerasammy Ramayya, who were telling Berbicians that the party will never be in a coalition.
Professor Dizal Samad, who recently joi

ned the AFC, and is reportedly a consultant, had told one section of the media before the talks began that talks of an APNU-AFC coalition were nothing more than a scouting exercise.
Several AFC executives also parted with the party during the past two years, and amid a flow of resignations, Executive Member Dominic Gaskin had told Demerara Waves that the party will maintain Ramjattan’s position, which is not to coalesce with APNU.
“The AFC says it will not be ‘swayed’ into a coalition with the PPP/C nor the APNU ahead of the next elections as it continues to lose members,” Demerara Waves had reported.
Dhanraj, relaxing comfortably in a chair under a tent after the launch of the Atlantic Readers, a new series of locally produced books for primary school students, said perhaps Nagamootoo would have stood a better change of getting some votes in Berbice had he been the Presidential Candidate of the APNU-AFC alliance.
But nevertheless, the school teacher said that the AFC, which has seven seats in Parliament, currently has a lot of bitter people, referring to the cutting of the National Budget and the voting down of key legislation during the 10th Parliament.
According to him, the monies that they cut could have gone into the further development of the country, noting that the party could only have earned political capital from its action, but instead it lost support of those who voted for them.
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE
He said it really showed that they were not interested in demonstrating that they are a viable alternative to the PPP/C and APNU.
Former PNCR Executive Joseph Hamilton also had harsh words for the alliance. He described the decision by the AFC and APNU to coalesce as a product of people consumed by bitterness, so much so that they cannot “think straight”.