APNU is not up to the task of removing the PPP from office

Oct 23, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Escalation in peaceful street protest, even though a reasonable strategy, against an unyielding and dictatorial PPP is not enough to meet APNU’s objectives of winning the next elections. APNU’s performance over the last two years under Mr. David Granger is what really matters if they are ever going to triumph.
If we are to review the performance of APNU under the leadership of Mr. Granger, it is at best chaotic, and thus the outcome will have unintended consequences.  Yes! There are episodes of hope based on the actions of leaders like Joseph Harmon, Carl Greenidge and Ronald Bulkan, but three MPs cannot do the work assigned to 26 MPs by the people.
Our question to Mr. Granger is: Where are the other MPs? Are they paid only to fill the seats in Parliament and eat lavishly the most expensive food at the taxpayers’ expense? They have not done anything of substance in Parliament other than making speeches once a year during the budget debate? Is this what the people elected them to do?
It is important for the people to understand that APNU is the PNC. The reality is that APNU is just a sham of nine paper political parties, with only the PNC having real members by the thousands. The WPA today is a shop-front party that continues to live off of its historical past and on the shoulders of the late historian, Dr. Walter Rodney.  Like the other eight one-man parties in the coalition, it does not have the support to win a parliamentary seat. So stop the masquerading and the denial that APNU is made up of nine coalition partners because no one is buying it. The command and control of the political machinery of APNU is principally the command and control structure of the PNC.
APNU’s strategy of escalating street action today, albeit good, has to be coupled with how they continue to treat this no-confidence motion being piloted by the AFC.  But APNU’s intention is becoming clearer by the day, as they continue to use words to assure the AFC that they will support the no-confidence motion but in reality they are not.
APNU is playing politics with the people’s lives as its leader continues to push for local government elections and meet with the DO-NOTHING president, which directly offers the oppressive PPP Government a new breath and a new lease on life.
Do the political strategists in APNU really think that this weak and most disorganized strategy of meeting with Mr. Ramotar is effective? For one reason, it will not help APNU to convince the largest chunk of the electorate to support them. For another reason, by not pushing for the no-confidence motion, it is clear that APNU is aiding, abetting and prolonging the PPP stay in office.
If APNU does not address and solve its internal problems immediately, then its chances of winning the next election are remote. Far more likely, this political escapade will produce chaos and instability on the ground, further destroying the credibility of APNU and promoting an extension of the life of this ideologically bankrupt regime.
Critics are sure this policy of pushing real hard for local government elections two years ago would have been easier and much more effective, and would have scored huge political points for Team Granger, but today it looks like opportunism as they try desperately to regain some of the political ground they have lost to the AFC.
This is a fantasy. The reality is voters in the urban centres of Georgetown, Linden and New Amsterdam are abandoning Mr. Granger in the droves.  Many of APNU’s supporters in politically active villages like Hopetown, Buxton, Victoria, Den Amstel, Dartmouth and Manchester are also abandoning Mr. Granger because of his poor leadership skills.
Truly speaking, APNU lacks focus and whenever Joe Harmon and Carl Greenidge try to keep APNU’s focus on the skullduggery of the greedy and repressive PPP, out of nowhere comes the coalition’s leader with some bizarre statement that takes that the focus away from the regime.
The truth is APNU is a divided party with an inexperienced political leader who supports the status quo. Since Mr. Granger became the majority leader, nothing has changed in the lives of the poor and the working class, or with the PPP. He has not advocated for a 2 percent reduction in VAT, a 15 percent increase in wages for the workers or for a $20,000 pension per month for our senior citizens. In fact, under his leadership, the PPP as a minority government has become more powerful than when it had a majority in Parliament.  Our advice to Mr. Granger is to have a group of qualified and experienced strategists/advisers to guide him along the way.
So as the PPP continues to spread misinformation in their bottom-house campaigns that the AFC leaders are radicals, the revolution to move the PPP out of office at the ballot box has now become the task of the AFC, while Mr. Granger continues his useless meetings with the DO-NOTHING president. If Mr. Granger is correct in saying that nothing positive came out of his meeting with the President, then what is the purpose of having such meetings other than drinking coffee or tea.
Unlike APNU and the PPP, the AFC leaders seem to connect with the people at the grassroots level.  They understand the plight of the poor and the working class and they continue to organize, mobilize and advocate on their behalf.  They are more passionate and more focused in the struggle to remove the unrighteous, uncaring and corrupt PPP from office now with the no-confidence motion which must have the support of APNU.
The PNC’s political fortunes are declining and so is the PPP.  The political dinosaurs in office have to go, by any and every legal means necessary, or as Mr. Greenidge aptly puts it, by “extra-parliamentary” action
Asha Balbachan
Rohit Misir
Allison Rutherford
Harish Singh
Chandra Deolall
Asquith Rose
Vincent Nauth
Devita Khan
Dr. Reginald Watkins
Donna Mathoo
Vicki Rampersaud
Dr. Merle Spenser-Marks

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