Marriage on the rocks or a rock on the marriage?

Oct 25, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Alliance For Change is being cornered and split apart at the same time. The PNCR, in the name of the APNU, is using military tactics to force the AFC into political submission.
The AFC is demanding the Prime Ministerial position as it had done successfully in 2015 via the Cummingsburg Accord. Under that arrangement, the AFC was assured of the Prime Ministerial slot and 40% of the seats in Cabinet and in the National Assembly in return for forming a pre-election coalition to contest the 2015 elections.
Things have changed. The PNCR wants to hog political power. It therefore is seeking to force the AFC to accept concessions. The PNCR wants the Prime Ministerial slot and it wants a reduction of the 40% seats in parliament and in Cabinet.
The PNCR is on the offensive. The first salvo was launched in November 2018 when the AFC was embarrassingly kicked out of the coalition to contest the local government elections. The AFC was ill-prepared for the short notice and found itself seriously wounded after those elections.
The PPP swept those polls. It secured almost 62 of the total votes cast in what was the largest landslide in any elections. And this performance emboldened the PPPC to move a motion of no-confidence against the AFC which it did with the support of an AFC parliamentarian.
The PNCR has continued to undercut the AFC. It is now refusing to accept the AFC’s Prime Ministerial candidate. This is a slap in the face of the AFC which, if it has self-respect, would exit the coalition government before it is further weakened.
The AFC is however interested in remaining in Government. And the PNCR knows this and will exploit this lust by the AFC for public office.
The PNCR is reluctant to accept the AFC Prime Ministerial candidate because it wants to name its own candidate. Given President Granger’s illness, the PNCR does not wish to take a chance with an AFC Prime Ministerial candidate – who will become President in the eventuality of Granger not completing his term – and therefore is seeking to force the AFC to make a major concession on this issue.
The AFC says that its Prime Ministerial candidate Khemraj Ramjattan is non-negotiable. However, the PNCR would have none of it. As such, the AFC has been forced to withdraw from the talks in a desperate attempt to reclaim political relevance.
The PNCR has placed the AFC on the back foot and in retreat and confusion. The PNCR has adopted military tactics to politics and is using these tactics to wear the AFC down during the negotiation process.
The PNCR is using a tactic of attrition warfare which involves slowly weakening the AFC by dragging out issues and talks to the point whereby the AFC will get tired and frustrated and then be forced to succumb to the AFC’s demands.
The PNCR successfully used this tactic against Bharrat Jagdeo. The PNCR wore him down by frustrating every attempt which was made to ensure constitutional compliance with the no- confidence motion. Jagdeo eventually gave in and agreed to a candidate which was always one of the PNCR’s choices. He is now reaping the rewards of that political blunder.
The AFC is being worn down. It is being frustrated to given into a political compromise.
The AFC feels that its present withdrawal from the talks with the PNCR will allow it to regain ground. But the PNCR is further undermining the AFC through the use of another military tactic which it has adopted to politics.
That tactic is known as “penetration of the centre” and is used to divide the enemy lines. By trumpeting Prime Minister Nagamootoo as royalty, the PNCR has driven a spear right down the middle of the AFC. It knows that it has two executive leading members of the AFC on its side in its battle to deny Ramjattan the Prime Ministerial candidate.
The establishment of a number of small parties, many of which have been formed by persons with links to the AFC, has further driven a picket through the middle of the AFC.
The centre of the AFC has already been penetrated. Whether the party can regroup is yet to be seen. Like in military battles, once the centre is penetrated, the flanks are exposed and the enemy becomes so dispersed that it can no longer launch a counteroffensive.

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