The charge of racism is the last resort of electoral rascals

Sep 27, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

There was this guy who I know from playing dominoes. He would always lose. And every time he lost, he would rant and rail about how the other players were cheating: how they were peeping at the cards in his hand; how they were “rapping when they have cards to play” and all manner of other excuses.
Then one day he won.
The guy actually won. However, he was so accustomed to losing and alleging that he was cheated that even when he won, he said that he was cheated.
He reminds me a lot of the PNC. It was so accustomed to having to rig elections that when it lost the elections in 1992 – in which it could not rig – its supporters claimed that the Carter Center came and rigged the elections.
Well, the Carter Center did not observe the 1997 elections and again the PNC said that the elections were rigged and it also destroyed this country with its campaign of violence and instability.
It lost in 2001 and concocted a tale about election tampering and this led to the germination of what Kwayana called the Taliban in Buxton. It lost again in 2006 but licked its wounds and stayed quiet, one of the few times in which it did not try to claim that it was cheated.
In 2011, the PPP/C failed to gain a majority in the National Assembly. Instead of seeing this as a moral victory, some supporters took to the streets to claim that the elections had been rigged.
They undertook a march which found its way along Lamaha Street.
As they approached the hospital, an amazing scene took place. An Indian man, came out and laid prostrate in front of the march while shouting, “He gat to go! He gat to go!” obviously referring to the PPP/C candidate, Donald Ramotar.
This entire spectacle was captured on camera and aired on the television newscasts. What was amusing was that in his excitement to join the bandwagon, this fellow did not realise that he had run out onto the road in his vest and underpants.
It was a most comical scene that this half-dressed individual was lending his support to fabricated charges of electoral malpractices.
History is repeating itself today but in another comical exhibition. For five months, the APNU+AFC tried to benefit from rigged results.
But when the rigging was exposed it kept quiet and resorted to the defence that its Statements of Polls would establish that it won the elections and then just as the Recount was about to commence, it concocted the tall tale that dead people and migrants voted, in direct contradiction to its original claim to victory. Then it attempted to discredit the Recount by going on what the CARICOM Team said was a “fishing expedition” to try to annul the elections on the grounds of irregularities.
After the dust settled, the APNU+AFC was an utterly discredited Coalition. After shaming its supporters and being embarrassed in front of the world, it now has to come up with a new strategy to redeem itself in the eyes of its supporters and to regain political credibility.
It lacks the intellectual mettle to use reasoned arguments to counter the PPP/C. Its record in government leaves it in a moral quandary to criticise the PPP/C because it failed to do so many things that were expected of it, including inquiries into the extra-judicial killings it said took place under the PPP/C, its failure to secure a single conviction against a PPP/C leader for corruption, its failure to reform the Police Force, its failure to create the thousands of jobs it promised; its dishonouring of its pledge to implement a system of shared governance; and it also did not investigate, as promised, the contracts for the Skeldon Sugar Factory, the Enmore Packaging Plant and the international airport expansion project.
So faced with a lack of credibility it has had to seek recourse in the resort to charges of racism. It used an incident in West Coast Berbice, as its sidekicks are now doing to the incident in Dartmouth, to stir racial antagonisms.
Race is now the clarion call but that too will be exposed as the resort of electoral rascals seeking credibility and attempting to use emotions rather than reason to oppose the PPP/C.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

The charge of racism is the last resort of electoral rascals

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 27th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

GSL 2025 to take place in July

Ken Harvey dominates GBA’s Pepsi/Michael...

Goal is Money survive scare on Opening Night of...

GFF President congratulates Junior Lady Jags

Former Windies captains remember...

Olympic Kremlin crowned Horse-of-the-Year at One...

Features/Columnists

The PPP/C’s greatest liability

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Guyana: violence increasingly seen as solution

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The charge of racism is the last resort of electoral rascals

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 27th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]