James Bond: Quantum of solanine

Aug 07, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Let’s examine more of the contents of the epistle of the Guyanese 007 that he wrote in the newspapers this week. Yesterday, I looked at some parts of it. Just in case you don’t know the meaning of solanine, please look it up. It is a toxic chemical.
Bond writes that during the March 2020 election, David Granger was, “President and Commander in Chief; Leader of APNU/AFC; Chairman of APNU; Leader of the PNC/R; Campaign Director APNU/AFC.” This is the first time since February 2015 when the APNU and AFC joined forces to contest the 2015 poll as a coalition, we have been told that there is a single entity named APNU+AFC and it has a leader.
Guyanese always assumed that APNU and AFC were in a coalition. By coalition, it is meant that there are different entities with separate leaders. So it appears that there is no longer a coalition but that there has been a merger. It appears there is no longer a party named the PNC but the PNC is now APNU+AFC with David Granger as the leader. My curiosity as an academic who studies the Guyanese sociological and political horizons is about the deputy leader. Who he/she is?
There is a coalition in power in Israel. But there is no merger between them. At the governmental level, there is a prime minister but he is the head of the government. He is the head of his party which is just one component. He is not the leader of the coalition, which does not have a leader. Each component that makes up the government in the Israeli Cabinet has its own leader.
The identical situation obtains in Italy. In Scotland, a coalition is about to be formed between the party, (Scottish National Party) one of the world’s famous women in politics, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Green Party. I doubt anyone would say that Ms. Sturgeon is the leader of both.
So when did this merger between the APNU and the AFC occur? Was it while both parties were sharing government? That would have been between May 2015 and July 2020. In which month did that happen and in which year? We know from Bond who was the Deputy Campaign Manager for Georgetown that during the first half of 2020, when APNU+AFC was in power, Granger was the leader of that organism.
So could the merger have taken place in February 2020 when the PNC and AFC renegotiated the 2015 Cummingsburg Accord? Everything now makes sense given the quantum of solanine that we are seeing from the epistle of the local 007. Top AFC executives who have been around the party since its birth in 2005 told me the completed, renegotiated accord was never presented to the final statutory of meeting of the AFC’s national executive held in February at the Georgetown Club.
After the completion of negotiations, both Joseph Harmon and Khemraj Ramjattan told the public that some parts of the document will have to remain secret. Then Ramjattan made one of the most asinine statements to the press in the history of Guyana. When asked by the media why the secrecy, Ramjattan told the reporter who asked the question, if she would publicise all her business.
That was an idiotic, stupid analogy. This was a secret covenant between two parties that were asking the Guyanese people to vote for them. For the secrecy of the renewed Cummingsburg Accord and some of the secrets it contained see my two columns – Friday, February 14, 2020, “No human can be so sick to vote for such Guyanese politicians, ” and Wednesday, February 10, 2021, “The shocking secret part of the Cummingsburg Accord.” The three persons who would know if the AFC formally merged with the PNC are Dr. Vincent Adams, Dominic Gaskin and Leonard Craig. They were the AFC’s team renegotiating the accord.
Bond also informs us that “Granger as Campaign Director controlled the campaign. His immediate assistants were Joseph Harmon and Raphael Trotman.” This is interesting stuff. James Bond is bringing out information that sheds light on why the party named APNU+AFC lost the election. So three Africans were in charge of the campaign?
If Granger was campaign head, how come Harmon was his assistant and not Ramjattan who at the time was leader of the AFC? If Granger appointed another APNU as his deputy, Joe Harmon, how come Trotman was the other assistant and not Ramjattan? So there was no Indian from either the PNC or AFC that co-directed the election campaign. Space has run out but the local James Bond is not a good spy. Spies do not give away secrets.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News