Dear Editor,
No other political or social entity, apart from the PNC and AFC have called for the introduction of biometrics. The political opposition are alone on this one. And it is clear to see why, because whatever the PNC/AFC supports or opposes in the field of elections, it is viewed with deep suspicion by all those who know how tarnished in body and soul that party is in the light of their election rigging track record. In the circumstances, any expression of political support, at this time, from any self-respecting political or social organization to demands for the introduction of biometrics would be tantamount to ‘a kiss of death.’
Guyanese demographics nor its geopolitics does not rotate around the planet inhabited by the PNC and AFC, both of whom have skeletons in their cupboards that must be rattling at this time. Worse yet, by pushing for biometrics the PNC and AFC may be holding petards in their hands. And there is a bottom-line: neither of the two parties have clean hands electorally, nor do they possess a stellar record insofar as elections are concerned. The influence they are seeking to exert over GECOM is untrustworthy and aims at undermining and derailing GECOM’S current preparations for elections.
In their plotting and planning to upset the electoral process, prominent opposition members have indicated, nay, called for the postponement of elections 2025 using the disingenuous argument that it was done before the 1990 election completely ignoring the context in which that ground-breaking event was brokered.
While the joint political opposition may be mulling over a call to postponement of elections, they conveniently ignore the context in which that election was postponed principally because of the great damage their agents embedded at GECOM did to the voters list and the timely but necessary, if not justified intervention by the Carter Centre who made acceptable recommendations to remedy the problem. It is clear as night follows day that the raison d’etre for the oppositions’ doubling down on biometrics is their desperate need for time to bring some degree of order to their current state of disarray from top to bottom organizationally and otherwise.
Nowadays, with all the ‘backing and shunting’ between the AFC and PNC, characterized by accusations of betrayal, leaks, back-stabbing and scandals, nonetheless their aim is to place the country in a situation of uncertainty, and in the hands of a few, dismantle the progressive policies and programmes and to continue with what they left off after they were booted out of office.
It would come as no surprise that their interest is to recreate a system of governance that would be controlled in a feudalist fashion by a technocratic and bureaucratic elite acting in consort with political ‘has beens’ and ‘wanna bees’ as has a penchant for buying into secret accords arrived at during private cocktail huddles and back room caucuses.
At the apex of the APNU+AFC governance structure we will again see the emergence of the compradore bourgeoisie associated with private companies, owned and controlled by APNU+AFC top brass and their business affiliates whose sole aim would be to enrich themselves. They will remain largely behind the scenes in their own private capacities and would be more private, and more secretive than they were between 2015 to 2020. This is how elite power will operate politically, and militarily while ransacking the robust economy left behind by the PPP/C.
To thwart the objectives of the joint political opposition, the electorate will have to stand four square behind the PPP/C to defend democracy by taking appropriate constitutional and legal actions. Masses of people representing various social strata, ethnicity and multiculturalism will be needed to defeat the intended programme of the PNC/AFC elites who will seek to double-down on allegations of racial and political discrimination to achieve a goal that is clearly hubristic and phantasmagorical.
Sincerely,
Clement J. Rohee
