Dear Editor,
The political line-up for the upcoming elections is now clear to the voters out there, and the first casualty in these elections will be the AFC and its presidential candidate who will be left with nothing much to shout about. Once the AFC gets less than the five seats it now possesses, it is finished as a political party, and those dreamers who think that the AFC will be able to hold the balance are in for a rude shock. The truth of the matter is that the coalition of APNU with its coalescing effects in the opposition plus the consolidation of the PPP/Civic momentum, especially with the huge amounts of public money being spent on infrastructure works, propaganda and shifting loyalties, will render the AFC and Ramjattan impotent and weaken any base it has built.
But why is this possible? The answer to this question will become apparent as the election approaches. It can be found in the AFC’s approach to the Guyana political landscape where coalition building was put aside for the narrow street of going it alone, while claiming to represent portions of the PPP, PNC and WPA, albeit with no real breakaway part of each of the parties mentioned strengthening the AFC. Editor, the bottom line is that the AFC stands alone, and standing alone in the Guyana political scenario is doomed to failure as we will soon see. All the letter writers, columns, interviews and campaigning will get the AFC nowhere because the regular folks out there, the committed voters, are basically tired of the politics-as-usual, and the AFC offers nothing new, just talk and more talk which will lead to nothing much for them come election time. Their supporters like Emile Mervin, Sasenarine Singh and others from Dev’s ROAR offer nothing of substance, and the voters don’t give a hoot about their views, so no votes there; their record in Parliament leaves a lot to be desired, so no votes there; the monopoly of three individuals on the leadership of that party and clear denial of any kind of inter-party democracy demonstrates betrayal of any liberal democratic standards, so no votes there; the AFC will be outspent 8 to 1 by APNU and 20 to 1 by the PPP/Civic and everyone knows that campaign money is critical, so no votes there; there’s no ‘tricky’ Dick Morris poll to fool voters into thinking the AFC is stronger than is the case (like in 2006), so no votes there; and Editor, the blame game which Ramjattan is conducting as he campaigns will backfire into no votes there, as the voters want solutions ,not rhetoric. Editor, the writing is on the wall for the AFC as the PPP/Civic and APNU close in for the ‘kill.’ Ramjattan will become another Balram Singh Rai and 30 years from now Guyanese will ask: Khemraj who?
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
