The AFC in just three years has lost its identity

Oct 10, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The Alliance for Change is once again resorting to the tactics it used in 2005 and in subsequent years-attack the PNC and the PPP in an attempt to garner support and voters’ sympathy.
The AFC in just three years have lost their identity. They have been consumed and have become mere pawns to the PNC dominated Government.-agreeing or disagreeing as the need arises. When one reads the statements in the Action Plan written by Messrs Ramjattan and Trotman it is pellucid that those lofty ideals were just window dressing to appeal to the people.
I wish to remind the Guyanese public of what Ramjattan and Trotman had stated in that manifesto called the Action Plan. KhemrajRamjattan had stated that, the AFC will free us from ‘the divisive racial politics of the past, from the corruption that engulfs us, from the oppressive taxes we are forced to pay, from the deadly crime that haunts and traumatizes us, from the economic decline, and from the hopelessness that we breathe daily….Over four decades of PNC and PPP Governments have left us all bruised, weary and hopeless.’
His counterpart, Mr. Trotman had echoed similar proclamations. He had stated that, ‘the rich get richer while most Guyanese continue to remain poor…Failure to change now will lead to five more years of high taxation, higher unemployment, soaring crimes and widespread hopelessness’ (AFC’s Action Plan 2011).
Let us now analyze what has happened since 2015. Unfortunately, the racial vendetta unleashed on the PPP members and supporters across Guyana, especially in the sugar industry has proven the hypocrisy of this statement. The AFC has remained silent while this ‘divisive racial politics’ in being unleashed. Persons perceived as supporters and members of the PPP have been unconscionably kicked out of their jobs. The ethnic cleaning and the witch-hunting are quite horrific!
Moreover, the corruption in now pervasive and out of control, the Durban Park mega-corruption, the Drugs Bond deal, the pre-feasibility contract for the New Demerara Harbour Bridge scandal, the flagrant disregard for the procurement process in the $620 million drugs purchase for the GHPC, the $18 million US signing bonus which is still to be placed in the Consolidated Fund and the mother of all-corruption the surreptitiously negotiated petroleum sharing oil contract with Exxon Mobil. The Auditor General’s Annual Report for Y2016 found 82 breaches of the FMAA and 71 breaches of the Procurement Act. This is still continuing and the AFC has fully supported its coalition partner the APNU! In fact the Ministry of Public Infrastructure which is run by the AFC is touted as the most corrupt ministry of the Coalition Government.
Both Trotman and Ramjattan spoke about ‘oppressive taxes’ against the people but he should now recognize and admit that since 2015 there has been a drastic increase in taxes as well as the introduction of new taxes (over 200 taxes), ‘the rich is getting richer, while most Guyanese remain poor’ and there is now more than ever, ‘high taxation, higher unemployment, soaring crimes and widespread hopelessness’ (Trotman). Ramjattan should also admit that just after three years this Nation has become more, ‘bruised, weary and hopeless’. Over 30,000 Guyanese have been thrown on the breadline while the economy is precariously placed at 2.1% growth and all economic indicators point in a downward descent.
Now this deceitful tactics of the AFC has once again becomes evident. For the past three years the AFC has fully supported the actions of this Government which is PNC dominated and has remained silent on all the wrongs meted out to the Guyanese people but now it has come a full circle and decided to once again attack the PNC. This is a vain attempt to gain the support it once had. Its glory days are over! The AFC will do better if it withdraws from contesting in those constituencies where it committed blatant electoral fraud. That will at least give the AFC some credibility. Time to follow Jagdeo!
The President at Anna Regina had told the people that, ‘Local Government Elections is not about victim or victor, winning or losing; it is about giving the people the opportunity to run their own affairs’. This is far from the truth since neither the APNU nor the AFC had condemned the widespread electoral fraud perpetrated by their respective parties on the same people whom he wants to empower.
The AFC has not only committed political hara-kiri by coalescing with the PNC and then become partners in corruption and mismanagement but it has caused this Nation to deeply bury its trust in any third force for generations to come!!
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf

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