Dear Editor,
As election campaigning intensifies in Guyana, it is fascinating to see the many developments occurring with regard to political defections, new alliances, and the numerous ‘endorsements‘ by some notable Guyanese of public, political and/or business eminence. The PPP has attracted persons from the PNC and AFC. APNU has also enticed persons from the AFC, while the AFC has attracted persons from both the PPP and APNU. This realignment of political ambitions and ideologies that is being exercised by these public figures lends some much needed healthy stimulus to the campaign season.
The value and level of support those individuals who have found new political families bring to their new political homes, is yet to be measured and presented sensibly to the electorate. At present much speculation surrounds the perceived value of some of these individuals who have sought to forge new political alliances.
What is most repugnant and disgusting is the way the PPP has decided to label those who have walked away from that party in the most derogatory terms. The maligning of PPP defectors that is led by President Jagdeo highlights the barren intellectual wasteland that has sadly come to characterize the modern PPP leadership. One must wonder whether the PPP campaign strategists are bereft of ideas for a successful issue-based campaign, so they resort to character assassination as their best means of securing the ear and votes of less perceptive minds.
Former members of the AFC and PNC have traded places, and there is yet to be even the slightest of statements from either party regarding their lost comrades. Quite frankly, if Guyana is the democracy it is touted to be, then shifting political alliances ought to be easily accepted by all. The PPP which loves to speak of democracy and their role in returning it to Guyana should understand this situation clearly.
The vile campaign that the PPP and its hapless minions have embarked upon is most dangerous and destructive. A large percentage of the Guyanese people need change. They are not interested in the follies that the PPP campaign is presenting. Rum fuelled parties interspersed with hate speeches that are now the standard of PPP campaign rallies, paints the daunting picture of a political outfit that is out of control and out of ideas.
The opposition must continue to maintain their moral high ground in the way they conduct their campaigns. After 19 years of the PPP/C, there are a plethora of issues on which the opposition have honed in and are doing a magnificent job of proposing ways of addressing. May Guyanese be smart and vote rightly for a change in government.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Francois
