From the Diaspora…DOES GRANGER CONTROL APNU

Dec 18, 2011 News

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By Ralph Seeram

“Ah glad fuh come and see yuh but I ain’t coming to GT while dem people marching,” my friend said on the other end of the phone. My friend had learnt that I was in Guyana. He was not alone in his fear of coming to the city. My regular taxi driver was in fear of coming to the city because of the “peaceful” protests by APNU.
This was the case for the thousands of people who live in the outlying areas who normally travel to the city to do business. The “peaceful” protests have also had a negative impact on the business community who closed their doors on the slightest rumour, and with good reason, given the history of past PNC protests after elections.
What is the pretext for these protests? APNU was calling for the original Statements of Poll from the various polling stations. Now let’s get rid of this “red herring” that APNU is using and get to the real reason for these protests.
Every political party had a representative who signed the SOP and were given copies, so each parties knew exactly how many votes each received, before GECOM announced the official results.
All the parties had tallied their votes. So why all the nonsense of wanting to examine the Statements of Poll? APNU claims that they could have been altered, and by inference, in favour of the PPP. Now this could be a real possibly. Only problem is David Granger is not coming out clearly to say that is what happened. Why?
APNU could have easily found out if there were errors in GECOM tally of the votes and theirs. As far as I know APNU has not disputed GECOM figures, so why use the SoP as an excuse for protests? It was really a minor issue that could have been resolved by other legal avenues available to them. Instead they choose to drive fear and tension in the city leading to the police using rubber bullets against protesters in an illegal march.
Even if there are errors I am sure they are minor and not enough to change the results of the elections. Trust me if there were major discrepancies, APNU would have made this known already.
AFC also received the same copies. You don’t hear the party disputing GECOM figures. If there were any major discrepancies I am sure AFC would have made it known. There was absolutely no need for these protests especially after an election. Tensions are already high and the actions only serve to increase them.
Sure, some argue that APNU has a right to protest, but this must be done the legal way. APNU and its followers have consistently carried out illegal marches in the city, ignoring the police and the law, consistently ignoring police legal orders and instruction, thus leading to the shooting of rubber bullets at demonstrators.
I believe that APNU by its actions was seeking a confrontation with the authorities, by encouraging its supporters to break the law. Some have accused the police of using excessive force, including Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee.
One has to appreciate the police position in making a call to take necessary action in real time situation. Rohee is a politician so we can discard his opinion. The problem is if that crowd that was “up in the police face” got out control resulting in violence and destruction, those very people would be criticizing the police for not taking firm action to prevent the situation.
The police obviously were in a “catch 22” situation. Actions by PNC supporters in previous elections except 2006 bring back fears to people, especially the business community. Demonstrating in front of GECOM officials’ homes serves only one purpose–to intimidate. That has been the modus operandi of the PNC in previous years dating back to the sixties. Nothing has changed except the name, the stripes are still there.
The statements by Rohee condemning the police action would only serve to undermine the confidence of the police force. If this Minister felt that the police actions were wrong, the thing to do was to have a private meeting with police, not to let them “hang and dry to the public”.
Now what should the police do when faced with a worse situation? I’ll tell you what they will do, turn a blind eye and let chaos rule.
I mentioned that the protests are a pretext for something else. When David Granger was nominated as Presidential candidate, it caused a rift in the PNC. One must recall Granger was not a “rank and file” member. There are two schools of thought, about the demonstrations. One is Granger is trying to solidly his position with the rank and file members, others are of the view that Granger does not have control and others within the party are starting to assert their power.
Some people are wondering if Granger is in charge or if James Bond and David Hinds are controlling the demonstrators. The true colours of the PNC are emerging. New name, same old tactics.
Did anyone in the  PNC youth arm think who employs some of  supporters? Yes, the very people whose stores you are asking them to boycott. Business has already lost revenue by closing early, so I guess you don’t care if they are out of a job for Christmas.
Judging from the few hundred supporters the PNC can muster for their march (I was there in person to see them) I think no one is going to pay any serious attention to your boycott call. The feeling I got from speaking to cross sections of the people in Georgetown, including PNC supporters, is they are fed up with the demonstrations and threats. Some have been trying to distance themselves from the boycott call. I think they realize it was doomed for failure. Who is going to boycott stores at Christmas?
President Ramotar has named his Cabinet. I am wondering if the PPP heard what the voters wanted. Apparently not. They were tired of the corruption and voted so. But this has apparently not dawned on the President, ( who I personally think is capable of working with the opposition). He recycled the same people, retaining  Robert Persaud, and Irfaan Ali among others.
He removed the only competent Minister he had in Health Minister Ramsammy and moved him to Agriculture. The president has not made the bold move and initiative the voters wanted. Instead he retained some Ministers whose accumulation of wealth is highly questionable, to put it bluntly people view two of those Ministers as the biggest thieves.
President Ramotar will have to do more to demonstrate to the Guyanese public that he intends to stamp out corruption. So far he is not off to a good start.
So where Guyana goes from here, the first test comes with electing the Speaker of Parliament. The AFC and APNU are already jockeying for this position. This is only the start. They would have to agree on a number of issues going forward.
President Ramotar has started engaging the opposition in dialogue to get consensus on common issues. It’s a good start, but as I mentioned before the public is waiting to see when he will get of those who earned their wealth illegally.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: [email protected]

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