By Tantaliser
“Preach it Moses!” The calls came out of the ranks of those assembled as the man deemed the “rod” who will “part the PPP in half” exhorted change from atop the AFC’s platform.
“Good riddance,” he said of his former party. Longtime PPP stalwart, Moses Nagamootoo now on the AFC’s platform was the star of that party’s after nomination day rally at Parade Ground last evening. The loudest cheers were for him, plaudits were showered on him and as the AFC’s theme song blared loudly time and again, he fervently spoke on the “most painful” decision of his life -leaving the party he grew up in.
The PPP leaders have strayed from its ideals, Nagamootoo said. “I love my party but I love Guyana more”. They corrupted the party that was his home, he said. Perks, privileges and pensions replaced the noble ideals he was inoculated with, he said. He did not mince words. It has become a “defecated place,” said the attorney. “I have no place there…“
“Preach it Moses.”
The ship will sink, he said. The leaders have vindicated the worst fears of decent people, he declared. “Their own leaders have betrayed them.”
“Preach it Moses.”
“They rigged the internal election to manufacture a presidential candidate,” Nagamootoo said adding that at party congresses to elect leaders, an internal “cabal” controlled, financed and fed by the President will undo the results of the congress.
“Preach it Moses.”
“They devoted all their energies talking to the dead man Nagamootoo.” He was referring to the PPP gathering after that party’s list was submitted where he was lambasted by the leadership. He said that when it was announced that he had resigned from the PPP, the state media reported that he was no great loss but continued running the video of his 2006 address to the PPP rally in Berbice where he supported the PPP. He said that it was like the general in the movie El Cid who, after he was killed, his body was displayed as though he was alive. “They were parading my corpse,” he said.
Nagamootoo invited members and supporters “to join me on this revolutionary crusade.”
Last evening’s turnout of a few hundred persons at the AFC’s after nomination day rally at Parade ground may have been a disappointment for the AFC. Some left after Nagamootoo spoke.
“He came as a gift,” said the rally’s chairperson, Cathy Hughes when she introduced him.
AFC Presidential candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan and Prime Ministerial Candidate, Raphael Trotman both praised Nagamootoo who they said they had looked up to. They advocated unity to overcome the problems faced by the country and the issue of race. “The war is over,” said Trotman. “We have to understand that the war is over,” said Ramjattan.
But it was Moses’ night.
