Boris’s masterstroke: Implication for the AFC and PNC

Oct 19, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

This afternoon, the world will know if Boris Johnson is a successful tactician, one that is brilliant. This afternoon, the UK Parliament will vote for his Brexit deal with the EU in which the UK will exit the EU on an agreed blueprint which both sides will adhere to.
I don’t like Boris Johnson’s politics. He should not be the Prime Minister of an enduring democracy like Great Britain. But like him or hate him, when a person is a master strategist in politics, you have to give him/her recognition. What Johnson has done is basic to politics. All politicians should study his approach to bargaining.
Three times the UK parliament voted down Prime Minister May’s Brexit plan with the EU. All three times Johnson was the leader of the opposition to May in their own party.
Johnson has now put forward a proposal to the EU which the EU has accepted. None of the EU leaders previously showed any appreciation for Johnson and disliked his style. They would have preferred if he was toppled by his own party as PM.
Since he became Prime Minister, Johnson has been saying lots of things that irritated the EU leaders. It was clear they didn’t admire him. But Johnson had a plan for his own ruling party and the EU. It was a master stroke par excellence.
He played the realpolitik game beautifully and won. People everywhere in politics should learn from the Boris Johnson saga.
Here is what Johnson did. Three times the ruling party voted down Prime Minister May’s Brexit arrangement with the EU. She got embarrassed. She resigned, Boris succeeded her. But Boris was smarter than Theresa May by billions of miles. Boris said I want a deal from the EU on my terms or I am crashing out.
He backed it up with some heavy demagoguery and rhetoric. First, he prorogued parliament which will be of benefit to him because when he is intended to leave the EU on October 31, there would hardly be time in the House to filibuster.
Second, he said he is leaving the EU and nothing can stop him. Third, he intoned that he would rather be dead in a ditch than ask for an extension of time to stay in the EU beyond October 31.
Fourth, even though Parliament passed a Bill that prevented him from leaving the EU unless he asked for more time from the EU, nothing in his speeches indicated he would observe the law.
Why did he go in these directions? Because the man knows realpolitik. The ruling party and the EU did not want Britain crashing out of the EU. It would have been catastrophic. Boris played on those fears. Boris kept feeding the flames of fear with his constant sermon that he is leaving if there is no deal.
So what he did. He gave the EU and his own ruling party, a Brexit plan that was the same one like Theresa May’s. The EU and the UK ruling party accepted it because they feared he was crashing out by any means. This is the difference between Johnson and May.
If May had threatened she had enough and she was leaving, if her plan wasn’t accepted, she would have won. It took a strategist like Boris to call the bluff of the EU.
You see Johnson knew that the EU was really scared of the UK crashing out. He knew they were paranoid and he kept upping the ante. Therefore, he said I am coming with a compromise; accept it or leave it. Moreover, the EU and the ruling party accepted it. The point is Johnson knew the weakness of his adversary – the EU.
This is a cardinal rule in politics, which the AFC in Guyana was ignorant of and now it has become an evanescent footnote in Guyanese history. In 2017, the AFC held an emergency retreat at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre and declared that the Ministry of the Presidency had too many jurisdictions and they want some of it to be transferred to the AFC ministries. The PNC refused to accept the edict.
What the AFC failed to read was the weakness of the PNC. The PNC just got back into power after 23 years in opposition and wanted to remain in office. It would not have rocked the boat if the AFC had flexed its muscles and said it was leaving the marriage. It would have got a curtailment of Harmon’s territory.
The tables have turned now. The AFC has lost its raison d’etre. It has no electoral power. The PNC knows the AFC’s weakness and will play hardball.

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