PROBING and introspecting and analysing how this country got to where it is today is an absolute necessity if Guyana is to really move forward.
It is becoming clear to Guyanese everywhere, when the nation considers the warped, unbecoming, disruptive tantrums of the Opposition, that this country suffers under the rude behaviour of a major political camp, and this is not healthy for the welfare of the body politic.

Despite the courageous bravery and positive response from Government Members of Parliament to the disruption that halted proceedings in the House this week, Guyanese cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what appears to be a deliberate strategy of Opposition Members to cause mayhem and madness in the hallowed chambers and to adopt a stance on the national stage of non-cooperation, denial of its own shortcomings and failings, and to refuse to play its part in the development agenda.

President Ali again reiterated to media personnel this week that government is open and welcoming to the Opposition for its members, and every Guyanese, to play a constructive role in national development, but had to repeat his admonition to Opposition Leader Joe Harmon for the Opposition to respect a legitimate path for such engagement, and to recognise the government is legally elected to office, with a President, Prime Minister and Ministers duly elected in free and fair national elections.

It is gross disrespect to the majority of voters in this country, and to the international community and foreign diplomats in Georgetown, to the Carter Center, to every right-thinking Guyanese, that the Opposition would insist on its obstinate stance of refusal to recognise Guyana’s legitimately elected Head of State and government.

Guyanese know that the People’s National Congress (PNC) committed atrocious political acts of indecency in this land, and today it leads the Opposition camp, as the main party in the Coalition. In fact, the other parties that make up the Opposition Coalition, such as the Working People’s Alliance, the Alliance For Change, the Guyana Action Party, are negligible on the political landscape, lacking voter appeal or grassroot support.

How could Guyana move forward when the lethargic, inertia-prone PNC controls a major political camp, inserting its historical heavy foot on the brake of this country’s progress, and at times, peaceful existence?

The PNC never once apologised for its role in rigging national elections for 28 years, never once expressed remorse to the Guyanese nation for dragging the people through excruciating economic disaster in its tenure of an autocratic regime, and never once admitted fault for its stupendous failures and incomprehensible incompetence, inefficiency and mismanagement during its term of office from 2015 to 2020.

Never once did it see fit to hang its head in shame and ask Guyanese for forgiveness after the shameful attempt to foist a dictatorship on the country, first denying to hold elections after its defeat at the No Confidence Motion, and then refusing to leave office after defeat at the polls. Not once did the main party, the PNC, nor its minions in the Opposition Coalition, reach out to the people of this country with heartfelt compassion and sympathy for what they caused on poor people, with 200 draconian taxes and severe economic pressure.

The PNC threw a tantrum and invented all manner of conspiracy theory and accusations against former President, Donald Ramotar, when the former Head of State appointed the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to right the injustice that saw Dr Walter Rodney assassinated. Guyanese were making right a wrong that had gone on for decades, and the PNC and its cohorts fought to deny even that justice from coming to fruit, disbanding the Commission with unceremonious dispatch of the distinguished Caribbean jurists when it assumed government in 2015.

It is clear that this country is suffering from five decades of the PNC foisting all manner of wrongs against this nation, from social and economic degradation, to tearing away at the democratic fabric, and to accusing the entire world of conspiring against it at elections. It is several months since the Coalition resigned in shame and defeat, and yet the PNC and its parties in tow refuse to acknowledge the legitimate Guyana Government, and to admit that it broke the laws, as the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled, and violated the Constitution, and verbally assaulted the leaders of every country who stood up for Guyana, criticising Caribbean leaders, the United States, Canada, England, and the European Union.

Could everybody across the country, and the world, be wrong, and the PNC alone, with its cronies, right? It there any right-thinking leader within the PNC or the Opposition Coalition willing enough to show leadership professionalism, ethical stamina and moral fortitude, and just plain old integrity, to speak up for what is right and sensible and rational?

In Carl Greenidge and Dominic Gaskin, two professionals and senior members of the Coalition Government, Guyanese saw inside testimony to how wrong the PNC and Opposition Coalition are in their behaviour. This bunch of Coalition parliamentarians need to take a leaf out of their book.
How long more must Guyanese put up with this state of affairs?

The narrative that members of the PNC and Opposition Coalition adopt is that most Guyanese, especially the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), but also even international diplomats, harbour racist and biased sentiment against them. This fiction they believe with hardcore arrogance, refusing to see how ridiculous it is, even in the face of Guyanese enjoying living out a wonderful mosaic as a multicultural nation.

At some point, the Guyanese society must stand up and analyse the impact that the PNC historically caused the nation, and to implement safety nets to safeguard against such disruptions in the future, and even today to ensure PNC acrimony and strife cannot derail the development agenda.