The PPP/C is giving too much attention to the Opposition

Oct 15, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – The PPP/C is once again up to its old tricks – slinging innuendos and accusations against anyone who dares to criticise it and by concocting conspiracy theories about possible opposition involvement in fires.
The main Opposition Coalition the APNU+AFC is utterly discredited. Its actions in attempting to benefit from rigged elections of March 2020 have left it exposed in front of the international community and the Guyanese people. Foreign Heads of State are not interested in having anything to do with the Opposition. The people of Guyana know what happened last year.
During the five-month elections’ impasse between March and August last year, there were persons who said and did nothing. That alone was enough to discredit these persons and make them totally irrelevant to Guyana’s politics and development.
But many who did not speak out against electoral rigging have suddenly found their voices and are becoming critical of the government. A shrewd government should have ignored these persons because to respond to them would be to lend credibility to them.
But the PPP/C is responding, and it is doing so in the most irresponsible and scandalous of manner. The PPP/C is back to its old tricks and the only reason it is doing so is because it does not wish to take the time to effectively counter the just criticisms which are being levelled against its government.
Instead of ignoring the criticisms, rejecting them or responding to them with sound arguments, the PPP/C is going after its critics. This is so typical of the PPP/C. It appears addicted to the habit of attacking the messenger rather than assailing the message.
The irony is that the PPP/C itself is on record as complaining about the quality of the Opposition it is facing. One of its leaders has publicly said that sometime he wants to call the Opposition and tell them what you are saying makes no sense and this is what you should be saying.
By attempting to be critical of the Opposition, the PPP/C is lending respectability and credibility, as well as giving greater publicity to those who should be ignored. There is no reason why the government should be taking the Opposition seriously. The Opposition is a discredited political force.
There is no reason for the PPP/C to be weaving conspiracy theories concerning the alleged arson of the Brickdam Police Station. Regardless of what some loose cannon may have said overseas, the fact is that there is no evidence to link that fire to any political motive.
Opposition elements attempted to incite fires and violence after two youths were killed in West Coast Berbice last September. There was unrest and some violence, but it fizzled out and the Opposition by now has to know that there is nothing to be gained from such actions.
But the government is desperate to link the Opposition to attempts to undermine it. And it is using a statement of a man who does not have any mass-based support to establish such a link.
The Opposition in Guyana has no chance of winning any election in 2025. It shot those chances in the behind in 2020. The people of Guyana, including the young people, were shocked by the attempt to benefit from rigging.
There is no way that today any political party is going to be allowed to steal an election. It was utterly bizarre for anyone to believe that in this day and age, an election could have been rigged and the riggers could have escaped without international condemnation and sanctions. Those who felt that they could get away with attempting to rig the 2020 elections and those who lent support to this plot, are living in another stratosphere.
For all intents and purposes, the Opposition in this country represents no threat to the government. The Opposition will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to regain political credibility. Certainly it will not be able to do so by 2025. That is a reality that it needs to face. It should be looking towards 2030 rather than 2025.
So why then is the PPP/C seeking to restore credibility to the Opposition? The PPP/C is doing so because it needs a scapegoat to deflect attention from its plans.
The PPP/C is being exposed daily for what now appears to be reversing its promise to reopen the closed sugar estates. The PPP/C is being lambasted for its failure to renegotiate the oil contracts. The PPP/C is being criticised for controversial projects such as the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project and the proposed gas-to-shore project.
The government needs a scapegoat. It is seeking to make the Opposition the scapegoat by insinuating all manner of things and by spewing conspiracy theories about fires.

(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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