I am relating a story that Leonard Craig described last Monday evening on the Freddie Kissoon Show. The time was in May, 2015 when the Alliance For Change met to select its Cabinet ministers. Craig said the AFC took the decision to appoint him as Minister of the Environment after a certain non-AFC personality declined the ministerial position (for more on this see my column last Monday).
Craig was instructed to go to the Office of the President to be sworn in by President David Granger. Craig was seated alongside Raphael Trotman when the President’s aide summoned Trotman. Right before the eyes of Craig and his family, Trotman was sworn in as Minister of National Patrimony which included the environment jurisdiction.

No one from the President’s office or the AFC informed Craig that there was a change of plans. So here you had Craig being left unattended while Trotman was anointed. Put yourself in Craig’s place. The man took his family. Did such a thing ever happen before in any other country?
So let’s do some reflections on this situation. If Craig was allowed into the Office of the President (OP) that morning then highly placed officers had to know he was coming and his reason for so doing. Those said officers had to know why Trotman would be there the very morning.
Granger had to know the day before Craig arrived at his office that Craig was designated by the AFC to be its Minister of the Environment. Granger had to know the day before Trotman was scheduled to be sworn in that he had identified Trotman to be a minister whose portfolio included environmental issues. Why then did OP not inform the AFC the day before Craig’s arrival that there was a change of ministerial designations and Mr. Craig should not go to OP?

It is logical deduction that the AFC was not told because why would it allow Craig to go to OP knowing that it was informed that he would not be sworn in. That does not make sense. What Craig’s revelation instructs us (he did say on the show it was the first time he was speaking about the fiasco) is that from day one, there was a dispute between the PNC and AFC, with the PNC showing an inclination to fight for what it wanted despite the consequences.

I have written about this before and since it will be of historical interest 50 years from now when Guyana’s political history would be compiled, it is necessary for it to be repeated as often as possible. From the research I have done and from my confidential discussion with important PNC players between 2015 and 2017, the PNC was not prepared to give in to what the PNC considered unacceptable requests from the AFC even if means the collapse of the coalition government.
It was the AFC that was afraid of losing power and was prepared to be browbeaten by the PNC. I am convinced of this. From my research, I am of the unshakeable belief that the PNC was not afraid of the government falling over areas of dispute with the AFC. It was the AFC that always retreated because it wanted power at all cost.

There were many instances of this and I will offer three brief examples. The PNC told the AFC it will not accept the amendment to the law relating to penalties for possession of marijuana. Secondly, the PNC told the AFC it wanted Craig removed as head of the National Broadcasting Authority (NBA) and proceeded to do so.

I got a frantic call from Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, whose portfolio included the NBA, asking me to locate Craig because he was about to be fired. Nagamootoo indicated that he was not informed of the action over Craig (maybe Craig should bring these things out now that he is a Chronicle columnist).

Thirdly, the AFC recommended Rajendra Bissesar to be junior Minister of Agriculture and that was forcefully rejected by the PNC. I could go to list more examples, especially in foreign postings where the AFC was told that was not an area of governance that the AFC should get involved in. In all these situations, the PNC was prepared for a fight with the AFC and if “bruk- up” time came, the PNC was prepared for the “bruck-up.” It was the AFC that lived in mortal fear of the “bruck-up” and went along with everything the PNC wanted.
I close with an incident a night at Nickey’s Fish Shop. A certain PNC minister greeted me in an over friendly way. He told me that the PNC will not give in to AFC’s demands and if the government has to break up, then so be it; his very words.

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