IMMEDIATELY after Valentine’s Day this year, the AFC’s Leaders began using various tactics in Berbice to prevent their Party from being transformed into ‘dead meat’ status. They have been using these tactics both in their TV presentations and on their political platforms across Berbice, but to just a handful of curious onlookers who soon dissipated.
Their campaign strategy is devoid of any essence and they are failing miserably to tell Berbicians in a specific and detailed manner how they will make their lives better. So far, they have only succeeded in convincing Berbicians how they will make their own lives better, namely, by dreamily outlining what positions they are going to get after winning the 2015 Elections, and trying to convince them that by achieving those positions, they will then make Berbicians’ lives better.
Their campaign strategies also comprise the following:
– Attempting to convince Berbicians that the AFC+APNU coalition is Dr. Jagan’s vision and dream. They have now included Burnham in the equation, but I am yet to hear their APNU counterparts echoing this. Freddie Kissoon has now become a historian like Granger, but he is seeing things in a way that only Ramjattan can see them. Freddie and his buddies in the AFC should at least study Jagan’s West on Trial if he so loves Cheddi Jagan. At least the PNC in APNU is not that stupid to talk about Burnham’s vision of a National Unity Government! They have realised the absurdity of such a claim.
– Attempting to convince Indians in Berbice that they are not Indians, but Guyanese. I am yet to hear the Afro-Guyanese in APNU denying their African ancestry or ethnicity.
– Attempting to convince Indians that they are racial since they are no longer attending AFC public meetings, which clearly indicates that they will not vote for them in the upcoming General Elections. The bridegroom side has not seen this novel revelation and has never mentioned this as part of their campaign strategy, since they know that they have been rejected for what they have done to the bride’s people in the past. But the ‘dulahin’ is insisting that the ‘dulaha’ did no wrong. Love is indeed blind, but I have never heard that it is that stupid!
– Attempting to convince Indians that they should vote for Granger as President, since the Afro-Guyanese buy rice, greens and fish from the Indians. The AFC has seen trade as beneficial to Indians only. Again, APNU has never tried this as its campaign strategy, since it knows that this is fallacious reasoning. It is only the ‘Indians’ in the AFC saying this.
– Attempting to convince Indians that they owe the propagation of their race to the Afro-Guyanese midwives who quelled the hollering of the Indian mothers in the hospitals and in so doing, saved their lives. APNU has not seen this since they know that people are being paid to do a job and they have a moral and legal obligation to do so professionally.
– Attempting to tell Indians in Berbice that Granger is a ‘gentleman’, since he went to school with Moses and Ramayya. I am yet to hear Granger saying that he and his bride crossed paths at primary school and looked at each other and fell in love at first sight. Moses and Ramayya overlooked this when they were accusing Granger and the GDF of rigging the General Elections in Guyana.
– Attempting to convince Berbicians that the AFC will never close GuySuCo, yet insisting that aquaculture is the way forward. Rajendra Bissessar made this revelation on April 11th, less than a week ago. APNU’s Stanley Ming has made it clear that GuySuCo should be deleted from the economic landscape of Guyana. He said that Guyana can do better without GuySuCo but this is in direct contradiction to Granger’s ‘too big to fail’ postulation.
– Attempting to convince Indians that the 23 years under the PPP/C is far worse that the 28 years under the PNC dictatorship. I am wondering why Dr. Rodney lost his life in 1978 and what was the purpose of his assassination by the PNC. Every social and economic aspect of this country was destroyed under the PNC.
Under the PNC, we were reduced to a nation of beggars and we were so impoverished that we could not have afforded three square meals per day; children, mothers and adults were severely malnourished. Children went hungry to school. Smuggling of food from neighbouring countries was a thriving business. The infant mortality rate was extremely high. Malnourishment-related diseases were prevalent. Even adults had ‘white-mouth’. The ban of basic food items seriously affected the cultural and religious practices of Indians. Sourcing of food items became a criminal activity.
Houses were in disrepair, materials were unaffordable and even paint had to be smuggled from Suriname. Moreover, even basic kitchen utensils such as cups and plates had to be repaired by the ‘solder man’. Even iced-water was a luxury and refrigerators were only afforded by the very rich. Television was also a rich man’s appliance and the kerosene stove was only afforded by the rich. The masses cooked on ‘fire side’, with wood.
Pregnant women could not have afforded maternity dresses and had to wear their mother’s big dress. Old bed sheets were torn and used as napkins for the baby and old rags were used as beddings. I could write volumes to substantiate that Guyanese were traumatised and starved for 28 years.
The treasury was empty and the country was severely indebted and even loans from foreign lending institutions and donor countries had dried up.
– Attempting to get us to suffer from amnesia so that the coalition could get into power. But if the AFC leaders do some research, they will know that even the ants used past experience to live a better life in the future (Nature World News). So if the ant can do that with only one brain cell, then why must we, human beings with billions of brain cells, forget the past?
In conclusion, the AFC’s campaign strategies have failed miserably to convince the Berbicians that they have done what is best for this country and her people by forming a coalition with the PNC who had destroyed this country. The AFC has already become dead meat and the carrions are hovering!
HASEEF YUSUF