IN my two earlier columns, I examined how the AFC declined and eventually decided to leave the coalition.
I will now suggest what will happen to the AFC after December 2022 using the document labelled, “Review of the AFC and the Way Forward.”
I must say that what the AFC has been saying in the past month about its position in the coalition such as leaving, rebuilding, rebranding itself coincides with the above document even though it was written soon after the PPP entered office in August 2020. Put differently, the AFC has been running to who knows where, but it has been in the same place.
The main purpose of the AFC is to recognise “the need for widespread changes in the conduct and practice of politics in Guyana, and, in particular, the necessity to end the winner-take-all mantra within the political system” as so proudly stated in the document.
This is a classic case of di minimis where words do match ambitions and actions. You do not need an analysis from me to tell you that the AFC did not remotely meet this goal during the five years in office.
There is no sign that it would do so soon. The reason lies in this misguided and supercilious statement that the AFC supports “a broad-based, multi-ethnic alliance comprising political parties, civil society groups, organisations, and individual citizens.” Are we supposed to believe this declaration? Again, this position was not practised. To me, the statement sounds like a swansong.
The party’s trump card, which it will use continuously, is detected in the following boastful statement —
“The stark reality is that the AFC has the same number of seats today that it held during its peak performance as a single political entity facing the Guyanese electorate in the 2011 electoral contest, but less than the 12 seats it held in the coalition after the 2015 elections.”
Notwithstanding that it is not about the number of seats but the performance of the seats, the AFC in the same breath purportedly says: “The need to share the geographical proportional and national top-up seats have left the AFC in a politically worse position, a situation that now demands genuine and detailed analysis of the alliance’s future as a coalition partner.”
Okay, let us see what the future looks like for the AFC. Thumbing through the document reveals some promise until I reached this drivel that the “AFC leaders at all levels must see themselves as the vanguard of Guyanese democracy and the voice against corruption and racialisation of Guyanese politics, which promotes one group over the other.”
Unless you are a die-hard fan and faithful of the AFC, you will not find comfort in the previously mentioned statement and take a deep yawn since the statement is aligned with the likes of the Little Red Riding Hoods. Come on, you can fool some people some time, but not all the people all the time. However, it is never too late to put these sentiments into practice, even imaginatively.
Pages six and seven of the document repeat exactly the bells and whistles of what Khemraj Ramjattan and his sidekicks have been feeding the media, and that is, to stay or leave the coalition.
To illustrate, compare what the AFC said about exiting and rebuilding itself to the media two weeks ago with the following position of leaving the coalition in the document.
“Exit the current construct and move forward independently, which would allow the party to rebrand, reinvent and regain its identity.” This is one reason why I believe that the “way forward” document is still important to the AFC.
At one stage, and I do not exactly know when, the AFC thought that to survive, it could not continue under the current Cummingsburg Accord and that an MoU governing new arrangements relating to the role of APNU and the AFC in the Parliamentary Opposition should be established detailing how the AFC would function with APNU on parliamentary and policy positions relating to parliament.
Does anyone really care? Nonetheless, it appears that coalition was rife with internecine strife and backstabbing, but the party will never admit that. The jig of the AFC in the coalition is up. The people have caught on to the hidden gimmicks. Hyperbolic speaking does not cut it any more to bolster flagging spirits.
I close by saying that this is my last column on the AFC until December 2022 when the AFC skips town. However, check out this statement in the document.
“AFC members should protect the AFC as an institution even if they have grave reservations about views expressed by members or decisions taken and not leak confidential and internal discussions to the media. Such activities should be subject to party discipline to show its total opposition to such actions, which should be deemed ‘anti-party’.”
Does this sound familiar? The old guards or they of high places lay down the rules and party faithful just toe the line (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu).