I will include in the PPP’s opponents, all the opposition parties (right now that will be PNC, AFC, Team Mohamed, WPA and ANUG), the private media and the anti-PPP civil society groups like Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), Transparency International –Guyana, Red Thread, among others.
To unseat an incumbent, the opposition must present itself as embodying the leadership qualities that the public sees as a credible and trustworthy alternative. The opposition must appear as people who have a holistic picture of the nation, and the population must believe they describe the facts fairly and accurately without resorting to barefacedly twisting them so that they appear dishonest in the eyes of the nation.
The anti-incumbent critics must be people with character and credibility that the country respects, and respects them because they see them as politicians and society’s actors that will do a plausible and competent job if voted into office, and that they can be trusted with the humane and modest exercise of power.
The Conservatives lost to a Labour landslide in the UK because they were seen as people the UK population no longer felt should be in power. The UNC won in Trinidad because, while in the opposition, the UNC was seen as a credible alternative. Mr. Trump won because President Biden and Kamala Harris were seen as people who the American people felt did not have the substance to continue in government.
It will take several columns to analyze the lack of credibility of the school of anti-government actors. I will just randomly select a few and, in the coming weeks, expand. I honestly find the entry of Azruddin Mohamed so surreal and comical that I will not spend time on him. Is Mr. Mohamed of sound mind?
I begin with Red Thread’s leading voice – Vanda Radzik. This civil society lady wrote the President as part of a wider group demanding (yes, demanding, not asking) that Guyana get out of oil and gas immediately because of climate damage.
When the BBC came here last year to do a documentary on Guyana, she was selected as an interviewee. When the interviewer asked for her position on oil, she showed no backbone, no leadership quality. She did not mention her position on oil. She simply told her host that in Guyana, there were two spectrums (her words) – one that Guyana should get out of oil and the other for a better contract.
She never told her interviewer that “I, Ms. Radzik, stand by my conviction that Guyana should not have oil production.” Are these the people whose words we are going to accept when they criticise the Ali presidency? Let’s move over to GHRA and the Transparency International folks here in Guyana. Should we ever listen to anything these people say when they chose deliberate silence about one of the worst attempts in modern history to hijack a legal, national election?
The Opposition Leader became morbidly petty-minded when he did not attend the funeral of one of the most iconic leaders the PNC produced in history – Amna Ally. Should Guyana trust this man to replace Dr. Ali? Can this man stand in Ali’s shoes? Next is Nigel Hughes, one of the numbers in the potpourri of Mulatto/ Creole Class elites.
Mr. Hughes, instead of trying to steal Dr. Ali’s thunder as a competitor for Dr. Ali’s office, watched the people of Guyana who, on April 28, saw their country almost being harmed by rampaging mobs and told Guyanese there were no mobs. Those violent people who wanted to destroy Guyana were provocateurs sent by the PPP.
Finally, the Stabroek News (SN). Please tell me if you have the stomach to tolerate the poisonous, volcanic ash this newspaper, along with the Kaieteur News, spews on this nation? I am concluding this article here with an example of the stupid people this country has, and any decent human should ignore these people as we reach the point of voting on September 1.
In its Friday editorial, SN noted that when the President contacted GECOM’s chairperson to ask if GECOM would be ready by September 1 because that is his choice; the newspaper wrote that at the same time the President should have demanded from the chairperson an obligation to ensure that she make sure that the chaos of 2020 is not repeated.
I ask you in all sincerity if this was not a manifestation of crass stupidity. How can a President or Prime Minister inquire of the election administrators if they are ready for the date he has in mind, then go on to lecture them about preventing chaos? Commonsense and decency should inform any sane mind that is out of protocol and Presidents and Prime Ministers do not do such things.
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.