This PNC/APNU has not changed and will not change 

Feb 28, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
People are always watching the actions of political parties and making assessments that will shape their future voting behaviour. APNU is a party supported almost only by the second largest ethnic group (Africans) in a country strafed by ethnic politics.
Africans are a distant second to the largest ethnic group (Indians) and by the next census will likely be third largest ethnic group after Indians and Mixed Races.
The PNC/APNU hardly gets any crossover support from other ethnic groups. APNU cannot win an election without any substantial support from other ethnic groups, and that means Mixed Races and Amerindians, because Indians will not vote for APNU/PNC. Even worse, the PNC/APNU is always harassed by its past atrocities and its days of dictatorship.
So, how should APNU have played its hand since November 2011? Tactfully, of course. But this is the PNC/APNU, a party of blunders, mistakes, errors and miscalculations. A party that continues to exhibit reckless thinking, foolish decision-making, feeble awareness and a movement that seems intent on wasting the political capital it got from the November 28, 2011 election.
The Rohee fiasco is now a dated issue in the minds of the Guyanese public caught in their all-consuming bread and butter struggles. Many think the Chief Justice got it wrong, including myself, but his decision is the law until or unless it is appealed. Guyanese have moved on from this debacle. Trotman did the right thing in overturning the egregiously atrocious and demonstrably arrogant decision of the Deputy Speaker who blocked Rohee from speaking even after Trotman in respecting the ruling of the court allowed Rohee to speak.
The PNC/APNU now comes out swinging against the same man it backed over Moses Nagamootoo for the Speakership. It did not like the fact that Trotman upheld the law. It assailed Trotman for doing the honourable thing and respecting the rule of law. It is screaming murder against a man who is giving validity to a judgement of the courts where the same PNC/APNU sent lawyers and acceded to its jurisdiction over this matter.
This continued resistance over the Rohee matter is no longer about Rohee, it is now about the PNC and the undercurrent of philosophy that flows within that organization. Clearly, if the PNC is to condemn Trotman for his ruling on the basis that it is of ‘questionable legal soundness’, why the heck has the PNC not appealed the Chief Justice’s decision? What prevents the PNC/APNU from challenging Trotman’s ruling in the same courts where it lost on the Rohee issue?
The PNC/APNU is lazy and is engaged in backward backdoor idiocy here. Why has the PNC/APNU not appealed the Chief Justice’s decision on Rohee? This is a party stacked with lawyers. It’s because the PNC is not about law and order or the legitimacy of the rule of law.
The PNC is no different from the PPP. They are vindictive, vengeful and bitter. There is no sense of responsibility to the exercise of power. It must be used in a might is right manner, to subjugate rather than to advance the interest of the nation.
The law of the land, the ruling of judges, the decisions of courts have no bearing on the PNC’s bullyism. It is easier to take the lazy and despotic route of absurdly and ignorantly overturning the decision of the judiciary.
After the Linden inquiry defused the PNC and failed to give it any galvanising political ignition, the court/Chief Justice’s decision offered the PNC an escape with some of its dignity intact. It could have quietly appealed the decision, demonstrating its respect for the judiciary and moved on with more important business. However, this willingness to throw egg on its own face is becoming an embarrassment to even those who back the PNC.
By dragging this matter back into the spotlight with its condemnation of Trotman, the very man they so zealously and jealously defended for the Speaker role, the PNC has only highlighted its vindictiveness, mercenary tendencies, ineptitude, willingness to sacrifice those who fail to back its idiocies, its failure to read the pulse of the people and its indolence. This course of action of trying to destroy its handpicked Speaker because he has the temerity to respect the ruling of the court tells the entire country the PNC will do exactly what it did for 28 years of thuggery, misery and mercilessness if it ever regains power.
This party has not changed and will not change. It has a destructive orientation to power. It will destroy its own if they try to stop its dictatorial ways. It will act in a childish manner just for the sake of ruthless punishment of an individual, even when the court has disallowed it. Nothing about the PNC/APNU tells me it will respect the rule of law in Guyana if it wins power. That is a wakeup call for those Africans who genuinely believed this party was transformed and was a decent force for positive change and above the pettiness of retaliatory politics.
APNU may try to force Trotman to resign. It would be the AFC’s moment of truth. It has to defend the Speaker and stand against the PNC/APNU. Voters beware, the PPP and the PNC are two sides of the same coin.
M. Maxwell

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