THE AFC is gone. The AFC will be alive in 2027. Nigel Hughes is gone for sure, and I doubt his wife Cathy Hughes will stay on in the party without him. Kemraj Ramjattan said to Leonard Craig in June that he has generally gone from politics. Raphael Trotman is not in the best of health. I don’t think David Patterson all by himself will get enough traction from the Mulatto/ Creole class (MCC) to help him.

Intellectuals, political society and the general Guyanese population do not fully grasp the psychic value the MCC attaches to colour. I have seen this attachment as a Guyanese social activist and as an academic that uses class analysis for “donkey years” now. For some esoteric reason, the MCC at a deep Freudian level accepts light complexion as anthropological reality.

Patterson is too dark skinned to find embrace by the MCC. Of course, you can argue that Cathy and Nigel Hughes were darker rather than brown, but the Hughes came from within the bowels of quintessential middle-class aristocracy where status and wealth met in a formidable confluence. Cathy Hughes’s father was one of the darkest Guyanese I have seen but he was seen as part of the crème de la crème of the MCC.

Patterson will hold on as leader but as the barren, hopeless environment closes in and as the water trough dries up, the AFC will simply move off the scene maybe even before 2026 ends. The enemy of the AFC in 2026 will be young people who will not gravitate to it because they believe that the AFC is gone.
For a party that was in power for five years, and this was just recently (2015-2020), it couldn’t get even 4,000 votes. And look at the names – Nigel Hughes, Kemraj Ramjattan, Raphael Trotman, Cathy Hughes, David Patterson.

Forward Guyana got a seat in parliament with Amanza Walton-Desir being nationally known but not as prominent as the entrenched named above. I would like to think from 2015, after the AFC secured state power, when I began to dissect their politics and the personalities of the AFC leaders, I would have gone over the 100 mark of columns on everything about the AFC and their leaders, so I will not pen any further words on that subject.

I can’t say that I will not welcome the death of the AFC. On a personal level (which I would love to expand on, but you know how people feel about being personal) and political level, I think the AFC was a terribly un-philosophical, un-historical, anti-progressive, anti-humane organism that philosophically should have lost its existence ten years ago. In my analysis it is the least redeemable party since the 1950s onwards to have entered government.

I am glad they will die a natural death. I am glad we will not see some of them ever in politics again. My particular dislike is for Cathy Hughes. My soul is still riveted by what she did former AFC executive and her comrade, Trevor Williams. Humans just do not do what Williams accused Hughes of doing.

I leave a song for Cathy Hughes which tells the story of how pompous and haughty the human can be. This is one of the most philosophical pop songs ever composed and sang. I liked it when I first heard it on the morning radio programme with Ron Robinson.

“Stairway to Heaven” points us to an alternative life of giving and loving and peace if only we can see that it is an alternative to the elitist, snobbish life we live. Strangely, for reason I would never know, though I love the original version by Led Zeppelin, my favourite version is by an unknown reggae artiste named Ed Robinson. His version is a fine display of reggae rhythms.

Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow? And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold

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.