177 pages remind me of the words Dominic Gaskin uttered in 2016

Jan 31, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I have always argued in private with friends that for some inscrutable reason, David Granger was prepared to fight whatever demands the AFC made on the PNC after they both won power even if it meant that the government would collapse.
Mr. Granger is a strange politician not a strange man. He is quite an ordinary person who can be easily understood and assessed as most humans are. But as a politician he is unnervingly unpredictable. I believe the reason he acted like that with the AFC is because he was a reluctant politician.
My sources told me that Robert Corbin left it to Rupert Roopnaraine to persuade Granger to fill the vacuum Corbin was leaving at the apex of the PNC. Few people knew how close Granger and Roopnaraine were since QC days. Even though Granger had a strategic placement in the army at the time of the Water Rodney tsunami, they still maintained that link.
Few people in politics (I don’t know if PPP’s strategists at the time had any knowledge) knew that from 2001 when Jagdeo won his first national election, Roopnaraine was more in talks with the PNC and hardly passed on to the WPA what he was doing. Granger was encouraged to replace Corbin but the former army officer knew absolutely nothing about politics.
In power, Mr. Granger didn’t understand the power lust of the WPA and AFC. So when fights broke out, Granger didn’t harbour fear of the PPP at the gate. His stance was: “I am not backing down, if you want, then you can leave.” If the AFC had left, the government would have fallen but Granger was more concerned with his principles.
It was the older heads in the PNC, particularly Basil Williams (not so much Harmon) who knew that the AFC wanted power badly and the PNC should call their bluff. Guyana does not know what happened in 2016 between the PNC and AFC. After its retreat at the Conference Centre, the AFC demanded a substantial reduction in Harmon’s portfolios. The PNC laughed at the proposal and absolutely refused to discuss it within the PNC. The proposal died before it was born. After this fiasco, Nigel Hughes resigned as AFC’s chairman.
By now, Harmon was prepared to sock it to the AFC because Harmon knew the AFC wanted power at all cost and that Nagamootoo loved the status that goes with being PM and that the AFC bigwigs were more power-drunk than Granger would ever be.
After its humiliation in 2016, the AFC began to face a crescendo of criticism that it had become a lame duck in power. Against this background, the Stabroek News interviewed Dominic Gaskin. His exclamation is good research material. He told the newspapers that the AFC cannot police the APNU.
It could not even get the APNU to concede to even modest requests because there was no document on power-sharing. The Cummingsburg Accord was a childish piece of paper that said everything and said nothing. There were two instances where the AFC literally, and I mean literally begged President Granger.
One was the request to have Shamir Ally as the ambassador to Kuwait. Mr. Ally implored the AFC for help. The AFC was told that foreign policy was not part of the AFC’s jurisdiction. Eventually, Mr. Granger relented. The second one was that after the Commission of Inquiry into the police force, President Granger took the decision to fire commissioner, Seelall Persaud. The AFC went begging again.
The parties that recently formed the German coalition masterly adumbrated how they should function in government. It consists of 177 pages covering the totality of power exercise. It delineates all the lines that underpin policy-making. Here is a simple hypothetical example. It says that the German government will collect old stamps from Guyana only and not Barbados. It means all parties in the government agree to that.
I wrote this column because I saw Khemraj Ramjattan talking shocking fictionalisations on television and on Facebook programmes of David Hinds. He continues to say that the AFC walks a thin line in countries where there are ethnic bipolarity and third parties have to struggle to exist. That is far from the truth. The facts are graphic. The AFC, PNC and the WPA did not have a 177-page document to bind each party to accept policy demarcations and power delineations. But even if they had, the older heads in the PNC knew they could contemptuously dismiss the AFC, because the AFC and the WPA were more power drunk than the PNC and PPP have ever been.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

177 pages remind me of the words Dominic Gaskin uttered in 2016

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

CWI’s Shallow, Bascombe circumspect amid two-tier Test system

Guyana to play Suriname, Grenada in “Nations...

Guyana Football Federation announces opening of...

West Indies unveil powerful 17-man squad for O50s...

Seven Regional Champions to vie for direct...

Kennard Memorial Turf Club expresses sincere...

Features/Columnists

The unconscionable terms of the PSA establish a case for renegotiation

Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves

Renegotiation – the latest Guyanese curse

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

177 pages remind me of the words Dominic Gaskin uttered in 2016

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

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 […]