WHEN the Alliance For Change (AFC) was established, it went to pains to convince that it was not, and would never be, a part of the People’s National Congress (PNC). This laborious endeavour to so convince was repeated prior to the holding of the 2011 General and Regional elections.Preceding all of that, Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan, both former Members of Parliament of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), emotionally berated the PNC for imposing itself on Guyanese which was done through massive electoral fraud, and achieved by rigging the process.

What is so significant about the two statements above? For me, it embodies the unbridled deception that these two politicians inflicted on Guyanese. In the first instance, despite the efforts to convince otherwise, the AFC has now joined the PNC with Nagamootoo being its Prime Ministerial candidate for the upcoming May 11, elections. Who among the rational membership of the AFC in 2006, would have envisaged such a coalition based on the principle that the Party touted at the time of its establishment?

This question is in the context of the doubts that prevailed then with regard to the allegiance of one of its founders, former PNC Member of Parliament, Raphael Trotman. It was believed that Trotman was fronting for the PNC, but the AFC was able to cast a veil of independency; at least then! Some weren’t fooled though. Many in the PPP had alluded to the AFC being unable to be independent. As a matter of fact, former President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, during the 2011 campaign, warned of the AFC being part of the PNC. At that time, he felt they already were.

By joining the PNC through this coalition, the AFC has officially revealed another act of shameless deception on its supporters and Guyanese at large. With regards to the second statement whereby Nagamootoo and Ramjattan had labelled the PNC as fraudsters and electoral riggers, their call for such forgotten, must rank high, if not the highest, in the echelons of shameless and cold-hearted deception! How can these two men, who were on the receiving end of the PNC’s atrocities, now ask for one of the biggest crime, electoral rigging, committed by the PNC on Guyanese, be forgotten?

By extension, these two, who can only be branded as power-hungry politicians given their new position, are now asking for the death of Dr. Walter Rodney and Father Darke to be forgotten. They are asking for the two Ballot Box martyrs, Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar, who paid with their lives to try and prevent electoral rigging, be forgotten. By the same token, they are asking for all the atrocities committed by the PNC, including the banning of food, to be forgotten.

It therefore begs the question, if the promises of high offices by the PNC to the AFC, were the alliance to be successful come May 11, would automatically cause two lawyers to abruptly change their beliefs and their take on history?

This “soul-selling” exposes the AFC’s diabolic agenda of trying to gain power by any means, including, sleeping with the enemy. The PNC’s (now A Partnership for National Unity), lack of cooperation and support for the Commission Of Inquiry (COI) into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney exposed one aspect of its agenda; to want us to forget the past. Mr. David Granger recently promised to end the inquiry should he win!

It is therefore not a coincidence that similar sentiments are now being expressed by Nagamootoo and Ramjattan and which has now become the hallmark of the alliance’s agenda; to have Guyanese forget past. This call has now exposed the true characteristics of the PNC given its past record. It is a past that they are ashamed of, hence the name change, and is woefully worried that the current generation would be made aware of the many atrocities they inflicted on the nation and its people.

The repeated rigging of successive elections from 1968 to 1985 did not only precipitate oppression and despondency on Guyana, but the process itself unleashed untold violence with many forced to pay with their lives. It is in this context that the calls by Nagamootoo and Ramjattan are beyond being shameless and cold-hearted; it further exemplifies what I said in a previous edition, an agenda to rewrite history!

By Teayken A. Dhigg