TRYING to explain what the dialectic is as taken from Hegel and simplified by Marx would take up too much space to allow for my adumbration on the permanent erasure of the AFC because the dialectics in society have rendered the AFC a dead formation.
I wish Nigel Hughes the best, the very best in his endeavours as the new leader. We are friends and I hope he settles in without the discomfort that the world of politics brings to new leaders. But Nigel would know that as a public intellectual who has been doing a newspaper column for all the major newspapers in Guyana for donkey years now, my task is to offer interpretations to a school of readers who expect to see me interpret the news for them.
Here is my assessment of the AFC which is not new. Several dozens of columns have been done on the AFC while in power and since March 2020 to the present time. Those jumping up into the skies during the AFC congress last weekend should ease themselves carefully as they fall back down to earth, then embrace reality because that reality is as big as an elephant and it is right on their doorstep.

The AFC arrived at a special moment in 21st century Guyana. That moment catapulted them to fame, success and power. There was one and only one task facing the AFC as power came in 2015 – to use that unique moment to transform Guyana. The AFC did not do that, but in fact succumbed to the temptation of power in which the intoxication was so deep that it virtually destroyed the AFC.
I want to emphasise the word “destroyed.” The AFC had its moment which the dialectics made possible. Since 2015, when it came to power, the working out of the dialectic in Guyana has made the AFC irrelevant permanently. I appreciate the talent of Nigel and as I write on him as leader of the AFC, my mind goes back to the immense, permanent, iconoclastic contribution to the understanding of the dialectic by the great French, existentialist philosopher, Jean Paulo Sartre.
I quote Sartre: “Within a certain field of possibilities, man steps outside his historical and social limitations by what he succeeds in making, what has been made of him,” (source; Sartre- Critique of Dialectical Reason; translated by Hazel Barnes, 1964; this is one the great books of philosophy).
In Guyana, only three leaders have come close to overstepping historical limitations –  Jagan, Burnham and Rodney. I think Irfaan Ali can go beyond these three men and make of the dialectic what the dialectic has made of Guyana. He has made an early start and he should be in a hurry because the dialectic waits for no one.

No one in the AFC after 2015 and up to this day can overstep the social limitation that the dialectic has imposed on the AFC. Guyana has gone beyond that moment that created the AFC. Maybe that moment can come again in the future. But to use harsh language, it is absurd and wishful yearning for any human – educated and semi-educated in this country – to think that the AFC can be resurrected.
There just isn’t space for the AFC at this point in time. The analyst cannot help but be amused to think that anyone can hope to bring back the AFC to life. Here is one compelling reason. The first four leaders in the new AFC in terms of hierarchy are all Africans. In a multi-racial land, that is a non-starter. This is what I meant by the “vanished moment.”

When the AFC was born in 2005, no one would have gravitated to it if it did not have multi-racial leadership. The AFC would not have succeeded beyond the day it was born if it did not project a multi-racial visage. The AFC leaders knew this was what the people wanted, and it gave the people that. In fact, the AFC went beyond the Indian- African inclusion and had Portuguese and Amerindians in both its first and second tier leadership.

In as much as I appreciate the talent of Nigel, there is the theory of the Chronicle columnist, Leonard Craig, to be considered. On the Freddie Kissoon Show he went at length to voice concern about the Afro-centricity in Nigel’s politics, which he thinks is too overt and graphic and thus counter-productive. If you examine meticulously, the speeches of every Indian leader in the PPP, they avoid any reference to ethnicity. Dr. Ali has visited hundreds of African areas and he has never said: “We will do this for African Guyanese.” He just stays away from any mention of race. I think that is sensible politics.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.