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Carl Greenidge should know that it will not be done

Dec 13, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News- Here is what Carl Greenidge said: “Given the loss of the 2020 General and Regional Elections, it is imperative to do what is normally done by most political parties, and that is to have an opportunity to reflect on the loss….” Mr. Greenidge is an experienced person to know why that will not be done.
Both the PNC and AFC have put themselves in psychological prison. They painted the opposition victory in 2020 as a huge conspiracy of fraud. They told their supporters they won the election but the West installed the PPP into power.
There were two opportunities for the AFC to break from that pattern. One was when one of the most powerful figures in the AFC, Dominic Gaskin pronounced on the Mingo numbers game as fraudulent. The AFC did not join him. The second occasion was when Khemraj Ramjattan openly admitted at a farewell session with his staff at his ministry that they lost.
Ramjattan the next day sang an opposite theme. It is simply bewildering that Ramjattan would do an interview and his host would not have quoted the relevant part of that speech. Outside of those two situations, individual PNC leaders have not accepted the loss. I saw an interview with Amanza Walton-Desir (AWD) weeks ago and she used the word “installed.”
If there was any pathway to save face and move on, it was early; after the new government was in place. But to use the word “installed” 18 months after the PPP returned to power is limiting the opportunity to reason with your supporters. As it stands, neither the PNC nor the AFC has the latitude at the moment to concede an election loss.
The secret AFC document, “The Way Forward” which if accepted at the AFC’s congress in March next year will see the AFC part with the PNC. Even on its own next year, there still will not be an acknowledgement of defeat by the AFC. They will not touch the subject. Both parties have created the point of no return for themselves.
The consequence of that imprisonment is there in a huge body of analytical material that the PNC and AFC cannot offer their supporters to explain how Guyana’s electorate thinks and why elections could be won and lost here. This is what happens in normal circumstances everywhere in the world.
One has to be naïve to think that the Democratic Labour Party which lost all its seats in the last election in Barbados has not provided its members and supporters with that large body of analytical reflections. It will not be done by the PNC. It will not be done by the AFC. I think for intent and purpose, the AFC is dead so the PNC will be left with the dilemma on how to cope with this nightmare.
The most likely scenario I see is that the PNC leaders will carry on with its work in three years without any mention of the election loss. They will avoid it and not mention it at all. They cannot discuss it for one basic reason – people will become angry and say to them, “why admit this after two years.” They will not have an answer for that.
They will not produce that body of political analysis at bottom house meetings because that would be a colossal gamble. If it is recorded and made public, it will devastate the PNC. I don’t think they will take that chance. They may ask attendees to leave their phones at the entrance but that does not prevent word getting out on who said what.
The AFC used that mechanism at all of their statutory meetings of its executive committee but still who said what got out to the press. In the end, I think there will be not be even an utterance that the election was lost fairly and squarely. What people like Mr. Greenidge can do, is to write about it since I doubt he will be returned to the PNC’s executive committee. He should record history for posterity.
(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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