BYE, BYE!

May 12, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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My neighbour usually travels by bus. But on this particular day, she came over to ask for five hundred dollars so that she can take a cab.
My brother did not ask where she was going. He did not have to; she seemed only too willing to volunteer the answer. She was going to the United States Embassy to collect her visitor’s visa.
Her what?
Yes, she was going to the United States Embassy because she had succeeded in obtaining a visitor’s visa to go to the land of opportunity. Nevermind she could not even afford a taxi fare to go and collect the visa. She had gotten her visa and was all excited.
She was not alone. A little survey of friends confirmed what is being whispered around the country. A great many persons are now finding it easy, extremely easy to obtain visas. Not just to the United States but also to Canada and the United Kingdom.
Recently there was a diplomatic tiff between the Peoples Progressive Party Civic government and the United States of America. The government withdrew the work permit of a Canadian working on a U.S. funded project. The government is upset that the US is going ahead with the project despite its objections. As such, it withdrew the work permit of the head of the project.
Many persons who are upset with this action have been calling and hoping that the United States would retaliate and withdraw the visas of top government officials. Some even feared that ordinary citizens would be denied visas as part of US retaliation for the withdrawal of the work permit of the project being implemented with US funding.
There is no visa revocation of reduction taking place. In fact, the very opposite is happening. The US is continuing to issue visas including to my neighbour who cannot even afford the car fare to go to the embassy.
Instead of revoking and withholding visas, the consensus in the streets is that the US visa policy to Guyana is becoming more liberal. A lot of persons who a few years ago stood no chance of obtaining a visa are taking their chances, paying their application fees and leaving their appointments at the embassy with smiles on their face. They are succeeding in obtaining their visas. Numerous supporters of the PPP are amongst the successful recipients.
So instead of the PPP activists going into the bottom houses and bad- mouthing the Kaieteur News to their supporters, they should be worrying whether these very supporters are going to be around by the time the next election is called. The liberal issuance of visas by the foreign embassies is likely to see a great many supporters of the PPP not being around to vote should elections be held.
The PPPC therefore should not be worrying about Kaieteur News. They should be worrying about how many votes they will lose because of the mass migration of their supporters.
Donald Ramotar seems to be waking up and taking action. But he seems to be doing so at a slow pace. By the time he fully wakes up and takes the form of decisive action that is needed to reverse the mess that he inherited from the Jagdeo administration, it may be too late. All his supporters may have left and gone to the United States of America, Britain and Canada.
Donald Ramotar is a decent man. And decency can make a difference. But it will take more than decency for his party to regain the majority that it needs to have stable government.
Unless he acts and acts firmly, he may well find that he will be blamed for the loss of power by the PPPC. He was not to blame for the loss of the majority at the 2011 elections. His party’s supporters stayed away from the polls because they were appalled at the extravagance that was being displayed by certain government officials. They were concerned about the rampant cronyism and about the reports of corruption. And so they stayed away from the polls in their numbers.
The PPPC is hoping that by the time the next elections are held that their supporters would have seen the handiwork of the Opposition and not stay away from the polls in the numbers they have been over the past two elections.
The PPPC’s hopes may be mislaid. They should not be worried whether their supporters will be disgusted with the Opposition’s tactics. They are disgusted. The Opposition has shot itself in the feet. People are fed up with their tactics of opposing development and frustrating progress. The real worry of the PPP is not about how their supporters feel about the Opposition. That is a done deal. The main worry of the PPP is whether their supporters will be present in Guyana on Election Day.
I do not know how many will be around.  What I am certain is that my neighbour who cannot even afford a car fare to go to the embassy, and who is a die-hard PPP supporter, will not be around. She has gotten her visa and will surely be singing good riddance to this country. A lot of PPP supporters will be following her.

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