The incomprehensible stupidities that cost the APNU+AFC

Nov 12, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Let’s leave out people like Lincoln Lewis who, though he was a fanatical endorser of the election rigging, never had power in the APNU+AFC regime. But inside in the five years of power existed the activism of people like Dr. David Hinds, Dr. Clive Thomas, Dr. Maurice Odle, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, Tacuma Ogunseye and others who were once close to Walter Rodney. Their party, the WPA, was living in the corridors of power.
Dr. Thomas gave a recent interview to a Buxton-based online news entity named Village Voice in which he voiced criticism of how the APNU+AFC administration approached the sugar industry. The obvious question is what was his political approach to these mistakes? He had to know that those mistakes will be highlighted by the opposition in periodic elections.
But more importantly Dr. Thomas came into power as one of the Caribbean’s most experienced academics in economics with vast publications and with practical experience since he was once consulted by Jamaican Prime Minister, Michael Manley. To have Dr. Thomas in your government and Winston Jordan as Finance Minister without Dr. Thomas empowered to advise Jordan had to be an unforgivable act of stupidity on the part of David Granger.
Only a racist would categorize Granger as a competent president. My take on him is that between him and Donald Ramotar in terms of competence, Ramotar far exceeds him. So in actual fact, I’m saying he is at the bottom in the comparison of the seven previous presidents including the short stint of Sam Hinds. Let’s digress for a moment before we return to the caption of this column.
Tell me if this is competence. In 2018, the AFC competed in local government elections on its own. It failed to win one local government authority out of 38 that it contested. In 2020, the very villages, districts and towns that rejected the AFC in 2018, did so again. The PNC has the statements of poll. In every conceivable village populated by a majority of East Indian throughout Guyana, the entity named APNU+AFC lost including in the hometown of Khemraj Ramjattan of Number 48 village in Berbice and Moses Nagamootoo’s birth place, Whim, also in Berbice.
Yet Granger conceded nine parliamentary seats, equivalent to 60,000 votes, to the AFC in 2020. Raphael Trotman, Ramjattan and David Patterson from 2006 returned to parliament in 2020 but not Volda Lawrence, the deputy leader of Granger’s party, the PNC. It is doubtful that Granger will win in a fair voting system the leadership of the PNC over Lawrence. Let’s return to the colleagues of Walter Rodney in the government of APNU+AFC and the title of this column.
The 2020 budget has been passed in the House and many of the stupidities in the economic policies of the APNU+AFC government have been removed. Let’s expose Dr. Thomas and what can be regarded as one of the most monumental displays of political hypocrisy in the history of Guyana.
Dr. Thomas went to Buxton to speak at an indoor meeting as part of the WPA. He told his audience the government should give $5000 American in cash from oil revenues to poorer families. This same Dr. Thomas and his Rodneyite colleagues were part of a government that raised by over a 100 percent the licence for hucksters and donkey and horse carts. VAT was put on electricity. Second hand tyres were banned. Dr. Thomas knew we had a ‘dankey kyaart’ economy so he wanted US$5000 for low income folks but donkey cart and horse cart owner are very poor people.
Dr. Thomas and the WPA contingent in the APNU+AFC had to know working people will be affected by the banning of second hand tyres. Let me end with a horrible and horrific example of ‘dankey kyaart’ economy in Guyana. My previous vehicle was a Rav4. The tyres were worn so the publisher, Glenn Lall, asked his friend on Regent Street who sells new tyres to afford me the facility of buying four and pay later.
Months after, Glenn said, “duh man call me, yuh pay de maan yet for de tyres?” I simply forgot, so I went to pay. I died and post-mortem brought me back alive. He said my bill was $140,000 and he took off $20,000. The man was right in his billing. A new tyre for a Rav 4 was and maybe still is $35,000. After that, I bought used tyres from a dealer who took $2000 off of each which cost $10,000 each. From there on, I spent $32,000 periodically for my tyres. I swear on my parents’ grave this is the truth. I am glad, Jordan, Dr. Thomas and Granger are gone from power forever.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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