The Cassandra Crossing of Raphael Trotman

Dec 03, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – There was a popular movie worldwide when I was young. I remember going to the cinema after classes while I was a UG student to see it. A terrorist afflicted with a deadly, infectious virus is discovered on a train going to Sweden. Fearing that all the passengers are contaminated, the American military officer on board commanded the train to divert its route and take an alternative direction.

He wants the train to stop in Poland where the passengers could be quarantined at a special place, which was a former Nazi concentration camp. But in taking that route, the commander was told it was a suicidal trip because the train has to pass over an old, dilapidated, disused Polish bridge, the Cassandra Crossing. The commander insisted. The Cassandra Crossing collapsed under the weight killing large numbers of people.

Raphael Trotman, Chairman of the dying political outfit, the Alliance For Change (AFC), is offering himself to the government as a bridge between the PPP and the APNU+AFC. This is what he told this newspaper. Either Trotman is a narcissist or a funny man or has post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

There are some strange things taking place among the leadership of the AFC since it lost power and the characteristics strongly resemble PTSD. In my column of Friday, November 27, 2020, “The PNC betrayed African Guyanese; here is the evidence,” I referred to a statement one of the top big wigs in the AFC made during the election crisis. In a long discussion within the hierarchy of the AFC, that person advocated the racial division of the Guyanese territory. Only Dr. Vincent Adams made objections and he was trenchant in his response. More on this later.

Lately, several of these bigwigs have been drinking heavily to the point where alcoholism is quickly approaching.  Why these mental stresses? The AFC leadership cannot accept the reality that it has lost the government of a country that in the next five years will have the resources to use that will make it difficult to lose votes in forthcoming national elections. The brutal, vicious reality that is blocking the normal psychology of AFC leaders is that as a political organization, the AFC does not have a future and that is as certain as night follows day.

Trotman offering the government to be a bridge between the opposition and the government in some matters he says that are in the national interest, is a joke. This offer needs Freudian analysis. This gentleman is living in the past where he and Khemraj Ramjattan were literally seen as new politicians with a different political culture. That era is dead and gone forever. The political career of Trotman and Ramjattan is dead and gone forever.

More importantly, given Trotman’s deportment during the five-month election-rigging saga, it is literally impossible for the PPP leadership to accept the hand of conciliation from Trotman. He, no doubt, earned the nation’s disdain over his position on the rigging. It was a nasty, vile, odious, repugnant stance not to mention the inherent asininity in it.

Trotman argued that the report of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) to GECOM cannot be rejected by GECOM because the CEO’s report is final and legally binding. Simply put, it is the law, it is the constitution (see my columns of Wednesday, July 15, 2020, “The crass ignorance of Raphael Trotman” and Thursday, July 23, 2020, “The Lone Ranger starring Lo Lo and directed by Raphael Trotman”).  I was told that Trotman who is a lawyer was advised on this position by two non-lawyers – Vincent Alexander and Lincoln Lewis. Obviously, Trotman should have consulted the law books and the constitution himself.

It is bordering on narcissism for Trotman to think that he can act as a bridge between the government and the opposition. First, his acceptance of the rigging makes his bridge looks like the Cassandra Crossing. Secondly, his unique relationship with David Granger makes his bridge looks like the Cassandra Crossing. Thirdly, he sits on the opposition benches so why will President Ali see him as different from all other APNU+AFC leaders and single him out to be someone who can act as a bridge?

What is this bridge from Trotman suppose to do? It perplexes the mind to see what role he would play around the negotiation table. It also confuses the brain to comprehend how the PPP leadership works if the men and women in the PPP hierarchy look to Trotman to be a conciliator. Finally, since Trotman says he will act as a bridge in matters that are in the national interest, he should tell us if rigged election is in the national interest.

(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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