I HAVE maintained one consistent position in my numerous conversations with politically-minded individuals on how and why the APNU+AFC government fell from grace to the gutter. That is, the PPP/C “got them out in time.” The then government, now opposition, was on brazen outlawry by individuals whose minds were easily poisoned by self-centred interest. Guyana was suffering. The nation had reached a breaking point after the rigging attempts following the March 2, 2020, general elections.

That evil was stopped by supporters of democracy in and out of Guyana. We recognise therefore the hard work put in by everyone to have the then government sit in the opposition. That feat was simply monumental.

Some sections of the Guyanese electorate, however, would have liked to see the now opposition face the music after the No-Confidence Vote in 2018 and go to the polls rather than being burdened and bamboozled by the prolonged shenanigans thereafter, notably, to justify that 33 is not a majority of 65. That is now history, a thought perhaps waiting in the wings to be repeated because, for some, unfortunately, this was their trump card that tested the nerve centre of the judicial system. There was some concealed self-gratification in this warped thinking, because in their minds, the spirit and challenge to the No-Confidence Vote, deserves plaudits in a compromised judicial system. In the end, however, the history of the APNU+AFC Government from 2015 to 2020 remains a passing stage, heading towards its desirous course rather than taking the nation with it.

I have maintained, too, that if the opposition had stayed in power for another five years, under whatever circumstances, we would have seen the continuation of reckless and rudderless leadership. Since last August, we have seen reports emanating from various commissions of inquiry and the dailies confirming, for example, the devastating impact on the sugar workers, the revelation that Khemraj Ramjattan sent 12 Guyanese cops to the US to learn how to ride bicycles, and more bizarrely, the Opposition Leader Joe Harmon urging his followers not to take the Sputnik V vaccine.

These events are no laughing matter since they were not situations where the government/opposition was caught sleeping on duty but was a time when a cacophony of voices revealed (a) reckless spending, (b) high employment rate among the working class (c) the high life for those who control the wheels of power, and more recently (d) attempts to destabilise Guyana. These are callous actions, based on narrow thinking, not to mention pure madness.

I also uphold the position that the APNU+AFC opposition came to power through limited political engineering rather than sound policies and programmes. To wit quickly, PNC joined forces with small parties to form a coalition mainly to oust the PPP, and that appeared to be their core contention in 2015 which they failed miserably to repeat in 2020. Yet, the opposition has taken a victimology position, purporting, and perpetuating a narrative that it has been permanently wounded by an internationally installed PPP government rather than taking a serious look at any substance of hope within the sanctum of the coalition.

This avoidance, at least publicly, is not shocking since introspection would open a can of worms, leading to the further decline of importance and influence of the opposition in Guyana’s political landscape. In local parlance, the opposition is afraid of its own shadow.

What is unsettling is that the opposition is all over the country claiming that it has the answer for Guyana’s problems, when it had five years to do so, but came up disappointingly short on its objectives. If you have not heard of the term eating your own words, the above is an example. This madness does not add up, especially when Guyana is in a difficult period, literally trying to stay afloat from floods, from the pandemic, and from cryptic oppositional calisthenics.

It seems like the opposition has not given much thought as to what it is to be an effective opposition, and what it would take to bounce back to power. The so-called cognoscenti of the opposition would like us to believe that they are doing all the necessary groundwork of meeting and listening to the people to their needs, to their hopes, and to their fears. To its credit, the reception in its supporting base has been gracious, but this is, by itself, a static position, essentially fanning its supporters to sleep.

The challenge is to move beyond its stations of support, a troubling drive for the opposition, which will continue to saddle it in the domain of politics of no return to power (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu).