WHEN I was courting my wife-to-be, there was a song she was completely smitten with – the Carpenters’ “This Masquerade.” She went full throttle for the Carpenters and though their music was beautiful with the equally beautiful voice of lead singer, Karen Carpenter, they were not in the top spots on my list of favourite artistes. But “This Masquerade” is a truly great song.
Here are the opening lines of this lovely ballad that when you ponder these lyrics below, they remind you of our own masquerades in Guyana; not the masquerade bands but the political masquerades that Guyana has been enduring the past 15 years. Read the lines of the song below and you will see how potently they apply to Guyana’s political masquerades.
“Are we really happy here
With this lonely game we play?
Looking for words to say
Searching but not finding understanding anywhere
We’re lost in this masquerade
Both afraid to say we’re just too far away
From being close together from the start
We tried to talk it over but the words got in the way
We’re lost inside this lonely game we play.”
David Hinds responded with an angry tone when the Guyana Chronicle reporter asked him about the physical strength of the WPA. Here were his words: “The paper should stop asking people how many members it has in order to determine its importance.” One wonders if David deliberately substituted the word, “people” for “party.” The Chronicle reporter asked about the numbers of a political party.
The WPA had become a masquerade a long time ago, only to have received company of other masquerades the past ten years.
As the lyrics of “This Masquerade,” show, it is lonely game these non-existent parties play. There are two bitingly relevant lines from This Masquerade that is worth repeating:
“Both afraid to say we’re just too far away
From being close together from the start.”
Indeed, these non-existent parties are very far away from reality and are not close to any constituency in this country. The WPA is David Hinds and Tacuma Ogunseye. Why is a two-man outfit of any importance to the politics of a country? If a party has only two persons, then it is an abysmal failure because it does not attract members.
The WPA masquerade is not the only band playing the tune the cow died on. Keith Scott manoeuvred his way into a ministerial portfolio after APNU+AFC won the 2015 election but his outfit, the National Front Alliance was Scott and Scott was the National Front Alliance. CN Sharma birthed a party, Justice For All, of only three persons – he, his wife and his son, Jaipaul Sharma. A party of only three persons ended up having a ministerial position after 2015.
After APNU+AFC was defeated at the 2020 national elections, Jaipaul Sharma birthed his own party, the Equal Rights and Justice Party. It has one member – its founder. Current, PNC parliamentarian, Tabitha Saraboo-Halley has started her own party – Guyana Nation Builders Movement. It has one member, Ms. Halley herself.
Then there is an organisation that was part of the APNU coalition, Guyana Action Party. This party has no executive committee and no membership. The masquerade is still playing. Mr. Craig Sylvester has formed the Democratic National Congress. The party is Sylvester and Sylvester is the party. Former PPP bigwig and former AFC bigwig, Rajendra Bissesar has started his own political party – the National Democratic Front. We are yet to see who else from Bissesar is in the party.
Former PRO of GuySuCo, Audreyanna Thomas has proclaimed she is running for the presidency in 2025 under her party, Project One People. It is a strange name but even stranger is that there is no other person in the party except Ms. Thomas.
This masquerade is not confined to political parties only. The Guyana Human Rights Association is Mike Mc Cormack and Mike Mc Cormack is the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA). Then there is a polling outfit named NACTA operated by Mr. Vishu Bisram.
Over the decades, no one has been identified with the leadership of this polling organisation except Bisram. There has never been any public mention of any other person associated with NACTA. Maybe now that this column is out, Mr. Bisram may identify a few persons.
Of all the organisations listed here, two are very lucky. The GHRA gets constant publicity from the Stabroek News.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Stabroek News keeps the GHRA alive. The WPA gets its publicity from Demerara Waves. Only Demerara Waves gives the WPA coverage. Outside of this, the WPA has to resort to writing letters in the newspapers, always signed by David Hinds. It is indeed a lonely game in this masquerade.
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