The week began with a howl of protests against the AFC. It seemed that not a day went by without someone writing a letter or making a statement against us. First there was a hilarious article in the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday, April 10, 2010, bemoaning the fact that our Indigenous brothers and sisters are finding courage and a voice to speak out on matters touching and concerning their very existence. The comedy generated was a continuation from the Minister of Amerindian Affairs’ picketing the Amerindian People’s Association Forum last week all because they said that the LCDS process was not properly explained to them and that they are entitled to “free, prior and informed consent” about government decisions which will directly and indirectly affect them. Who could believe that a government Minister could picket a NGO? Laughs non-stop in Guyana. The article shamelessly proclaimed that the AFC was going into o a frenzy to deny “the first people and their communities” benefits that will come from the LCDS. This is the furthest thing from the truth. We know the author of that article well and know that she is being compelled to write things to earn her wages. We are however happy that the work of the AFC is being recognised by the ruling party and that they are reacting in fear and so we will wear the criticism as a badge of honour.
Then came letters from Dr. Cheddie (Joey) Jagan blaming the AFC for breaking up a “third force” movement that he and others were trying to put together. We tried to explain that we were never a part of the “third force” movement and therefore could not break it up. We did have meetings and discussions to see if we could come together, but these never materialized into anything concrete and were finally discontinued by the GTF. It’s that simple. Many people were disappointed all around.
The leadership of the AFC has always been willing to meet with and talk to other political parties about joint or coordinated action but we have our vision and goals as well and don’t try to beat up others who don’t see eye to eye to with us on everything. and it is amazing that when others hatch a plan for us that is not successful we are attacked and berated. Yet we must have done some things right to be able to garner six seats in just nine months of campaigning and while doom and gloom are predicted we are prepared and are optimistic that Guyanese are getting ready to do something great not because of the AFC or for the AFC, but rather through the AFC and others. We offer ourselves as the vehicle for change and welcome everyone to get on board because there is something far beyond our leaders that is propelling this machine.
To Protest or Not to Protest?
Then we had the mother of all brouhahas in response to comments attributed to my colleague Mr. Sheila Holder on street protests. At the outset, it has to be stated that no political party or group seeking to introduce change can reject protest, and so those trying to say that the AFC was never engaged in protest must be in dreamland. At present, the conditions are not opportune, ideal, or “propitious”, to use a fancy word, for sustained street protests. This is the view of even those who up to very recently tried to galvanise support for their protests. Just look at how the issue of torture of the Leonora youth petered out? Yet in the face of the obvious, the AFC has kept the fight going by providing free legal services to the tortured youth and his family.
Over the years since its formation, The AFC, and particularly its leaders, have been involved in protest and holding up placards against VAT; against the injustice of the Region 10 seat; against the dismissal of bauxite workers; for a better deal for sugar workers in Corentyne and Diamond; taxi drivers in Berbice; for Mark Benschop, Norris Witter and Lincoln Lewis when they were charged; and against torture to name just a few instances. Amazingly, and conveniently, some of the very people with whom we stood shoulder to shoulder seem to have forgotten those times, and the legal and other services still being provided in defence of their right to protest; but then again we remember that this is Guyana where anything goes. Ask anyone who has taken to the streets within the last decade and they will have to agree that street protests in Guyana have to be re-engineered. The people have become numbed in part because of the fatigue of being in battle from 1992 to now, and because the leaders of protests in the past have betrayed the cause, or been too timid to commit at the point of culmination of the struggle. So what we have is a frustrated populace, as rightly pointed out by Norman Browne, which rightfully demands something different and effective.
Time For A New Way And A Better Deal
We in the AFC do not lay claim to being the alpha and omega of political parties and for this reason have never engaged on attacks on others with whom we share a common objective even though we have sufficient ammunition to do so from time to time. We
Guyanese are hungry for a better deal one in which all of us comprising 750,000 citizens, rise above the pettiness of fighting and blaming each and get down to the business of finding solutions to bring us out of the drudgery and morass that we find ourselves in. We in the AFC want to be a part of a healthy change and so whether we are liked for it or not, we will continue to speak out and fight against injustice; corruption, child molestation, torture, disregard for the rule of law and the hundreds of ills that are paralyzing our dear nation. Time is too short and precious, and the task too important, to become side-tracked by the naysayers and the accusers. We will continue to take comfort and consolation in the healing words of the Apostle Paul who when faced with persecution said: “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Local Government Elections
The Alliance for Change is on record as stating that as a party “The AFC will participate in Local Government Elections only when the legislative reforms mandated by the Local Government Task force and agreed on by all parties and the International Community has been put in place”.
Our position on the Local Government Elections remains the same.
In a direct response to the AFC’s position, His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo has committed his Government and the PPP/C to “A last ditch effort to conclude the outstanding Local Government Reforms”, however over three weeks have passed and the Special Select Parliamentary Committee on Local Government Reform has not been reconvened.
The AFC believes that if the PPP/C Government is serious and fully committed to the holding of Local Government Elections under a reformed governance system, this committee has to be reactivated immediately to conclude agreement on the outstanding Bills. Any further delays will be deemed undemocratic and will continue to deny the people of Guyana their desire to take control of the management of their communities, free from the direction of Central Government.
The AFC remains committed to do whatever is necessary to ensure that all outstanding legislations are agreed between stakeholders and passed in the National Assembly.
AFC Lending Support to Diamond Sugar Workers
For the past several weeks, and as recently as today, members of the AFC’s executive have been in contact with workers of the Diamond Sugar Estate, and their families, with a view to providing advice and expertise as they sought to negotiate with GuySuCo on the issue of the closing of the Diamond Estate fields. The suffering that is already arising from the displacement should be enough to move anyone to want to bring relief. As has been the case recently with Bauxite workers at Aroaima, we believe that the obvious injustice being suffered by hundreds of workers at Diamond, and their families, cannot go unanswered. We must be involved.
We had hoped that the GuySuCo board, comprising mainly PPP/C “big shots”, would have seen it as both practical and humane to offer the workers there, the option of being declared redundant and therefore entitled to Severance benefits, or of being transferred to another Estate in East Demerara. Unfortunately, this was not to be and so the recalcitrance, callousness and insensitivity that has been meted out to the working people of Guyana elsewhere, is now being adopted to deny the workers at Diamond their basis and just entitlements and rights. We have seen the high-handedness in dealing with bauxite workers and sugar workers in the past even as a select, cloistered few enjoy super salaries and benefits. This nonsense has to stop.
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