Dear Editor,
It has become most evident that the PPP state apparatus has given the go ahead to spread untruths about the AFC; the special team I suspect, is in full operation. I wish to draw attention to their latest attempt at falsehood located in an article captioned ‘Trotman sees little hope for the AFC at elections’ that was published on February 2 in the GC.
Let me clear the air from the AFC perspective – our truth.
1. GC lie: Mr Trotman “has all but given up on its [AFC] chances of doing well at the general election.”
Facts: I was a technocrat invited to the AFC Executive Management Committee meeting of Feb 2, 2011 in our spanking new campaign headquarters at 139 Fourth Street, Campbellville. Even though the deliberations remain the business of the AFC, I have gotten clearance to share this statement made by Raphael at that meeting. He said, “I Raphael Trotman will definitely be on the list of candidates for the AFC.”
2. GC spin on Mr Trotman’s statement of, “This most likely is my last budget presentation because I have resolved for myself that I will not be involved in the business of ‘playing politics’ or being in the Chamber for the sake of being here.” The GC interpretation – it fits with his distancing himself from the AFC.
Facts: Did the Chronicle make the effort to read Raphael’s blog or the AFC website where his full speech is located? This is journalistic laziness of the highest order and is unacceptable. Did they not read that Raphael said in that same speech that, “when I [Raphael] return to the National Assembly, it must be under changed circumstances”? Raphael made is absolutely clear he will not serve in a PPP system that is “for the most part tumbling forward,” with a high degree of “happenstance involved in our economic successes.” Raphael was a key member of the team that wrote the AFC Action Plan and if the GC would have taken the time to listen to his launch speech of January 29, 2011, they would have deciphered he is on the AFC campaign and no amount of PPP spin can change that fact.
What is clear is Raphael is tired of the PPP style of government, its incompetence, its unwillingness to better engage other forces in the society. All my interaction with the AFC clearly demonstrates that Raphael is into the AFC in a big way, and he has to be; he is the leader of the party.
If the reading public can get a glimpse of the oppression in the National Assembly as they rubberstamp the commands of the leadership, then they will clearly understand why Raphael is tired. Guyana has a National Assembly that stifles 80% of the opposition parties’ contribution to debates. The rut has become so pervasive that even PPP MPs to whom I spoke are tired of the manner in which the state operates. So why should Raphael not be tired of this charade?
3. Yes, Mr Trotman, Mr Ramjattan and the AFC are the premier advocates for a new system of governance, away from the 45 years of the PNC/PPP style of national leadership. It is not the AFC that drove Guyana into the ground with a “combative, competitive and confrontational style of governance”; it is the PNC and the PPP that hold combined responsibility for the current dysfunctional state of our nation.
The Chronicle’s attempt to tell a story that the AFC is attempting to replace the PNC in 2011 was most ludicrous with a strong splash of humour. That is a total fabrication. The truth is the AFC election plan is all geared to replace the PPP in government; that is our ambition, nothing less.
In conclusion, I quote from Raphael’s parliamentary speech: “There is nothing that prevents us from bringing an end to the constant bickering and quarrelling. That is our decision to make.” We know clearly it is in the style of the president to ‘cuss down and buse down,’ but he and the PPP are the past. The AFC has made it clear in its Action Plan to reach out to the decent individuals within the PNC, PPP, the professional class and civil society, and in Raphael’s words to “forge a system of governance that promotes concerted efforts and broad-based participation in national decision making.” We are not scared of anyone joining us once they come in the name of liberal democracy and with no intention of continuing the acts of, in Raphael’s words, “manipulation, subterfuge and coercion” that are practised in the PNC and PPP.
Our mission is to remould this nation and all hands are needed regardless of their ethnicity, gender, religious belief, age and even sexual orientation. Together we shall sail or sink. We in the AFC have made that decision to sail and no lies from the Chronicle will stop us.
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
