{"id":1228,"date":"2010-06-26T22:04:23","date_gmt":"2010-06-27T03:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2010-06-26T22:04:23","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T03:04:23","slug":"what-a-nice-start-to-alliance-building-by-khemraj-ramjattan-chairman-afc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=1228","title":{"rendered":"What a nice start to Alliance Building by Khemraj Ramjattan, Chairman AFC"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was not surprising to me that the PPP Government and its State Media would have commenced an attack on the AFC after its public announcement of its decisions at its June 12th<\/sup> National Executive Meeting.\u00a0 What is surprising, however, is the magnitude and intensity of this concerted onslaught on the airwaves, newspapers and TV channels which it owns and controls.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The obnoxious spin and twists and distortions by the State Media are characteristic of a Government which is nervous and scared.\u00a0 Its unenlightened speculation about the goings-on in the internal structures of the AFC is a calculated scheme to divide and destroy, and to distract attention from the PPP\u2019s own internal paralysis.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let it be immediately said that the nice smile Donald Ramoutar will put on will fool no one.\u00a0 It seeks to camouflage the humongous disaffection that PPP \u00a0leaders and members have as to the manner of Jagdeo\u2019s governance \u2013 primarily his ouster of them from all decisions. And the Party\u2019s obvious impotence to do anything about it!\u00a0 The PPP membership does not have a say anymore!\u00a0 It is its creature, namely President Jagdeo, which says all and does all.\u00a0\u00a0 Many PPP leaders and a substantial portion of its supporters have become supplicant followers, ranting and raving internally and showing nice smiles externally.\u00a0 This was never the democracy so many of them fought for, and which have been ruthlessly stolen from them. This has turned out to be a democrazy.<\/em><\/strong> The maximalist leadership culture which they never demanded nor wanted has been forced upon them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Moreover, as is recently evident, the AFC\u2019s precedent-setting procedure as to the determination of its Presidential and Prime Ministerial Candidates has warranted a huge demand within the PPP\u2019s leadership circles to follow through with such a procedure.\u00a0 But \u201cNo!\u201d says the General Secretary, Ramoutar. For him there must be a continuation of the procedure which says \u201cPa say Ma, Ma say Ba and Ba say \u2026..\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 No internal democracy!\u00a0 What has happened recently, however, that has shocked and rocked even Donald Ramotar is that \u201cBa say Birkett-Rodrigues!\u201d\u00a0 Now this is unorthodox, almost abnormal!\u00a0 And even Donald now is arguing that it be taken to the Executive and Congress\u2026like the AFC has.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It is for these reasons why many of these members and supporters in Corentyne and Essequibo have engaged the AFC and even have become members thereof.\u00a0 It is for these reasons, too, why some of its leaders have been speaking to the AFC leadership stating that if certain things do not happen at the next PPP\u2019s Congress there will be a major cross-over to the AFC of these leaders.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unhappily, however, the attacks against the AFC have not come from only the PPP\/Government.\u00a0 Spokespersons like my elder in struggle – Tacuma Ogunseye – who I respect so much, have been making statements which obviously are intended to tarnish. His critique of the AFC in his recent Demerara Waves<\/strong> and\u00a0 Spotlight<\/strong> interviews must be met.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The AFC having gotten five (5) seats at the last 2006 Poll after nine (9) months in existence has every right to be confident in doing better this time around.\u00a0 This is not triumphalism, Brother Tacuma!\u00a0 It is a legitimate expectation especially in the context of the work put in on the ground by the AFC, and the negatives seen and felt increasingly in the PPP and PNC camps, since 2006.\u00a0 Moreover, it should be said that the strongholds of the PPP and PNC have a younger generation which has not been damaged by the ethnocentrism of the Tacuma generation. So the AFC\u2019s simple proper positioning per se<\/em> will mean nothing else but an increase of its earlier tally.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Would not this be the thinking of you and your co-leaders, Tacuma, if the WPA had gotten 5 seats last elections and had continued doing its groundwork?\u00a0 Let us be honest man!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Moreover, the attempts to sully the AFC and Raphael Trotman as destroyers of alliance building will hardly help towards that effort this time around.\u00a0 Indeed alliance building even with non-PNC organisations will be most challenging.\u00a0 But to start off with lacerating the AFC and negatively placing it in the political spectrum will exacerbate those challenges.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By the way where did you get the idea from, Tacuma, that the Western countries helped the AFC in the 2006 Elections?\u00a0 This false allegation is akin to those which the PPP carried that we got monies from narco-dealers!\u00a0 The AFC never got one cent support from the British, Americans or Canadians.\u00a0 None whatsoever! Just like it never took any narco dollars!\u00a0 The AFC took a strong line against Roger Khan and narco-dealers the last Elections.\u00a0 Some even advised that we were going to lose votes for this approach.\u00a0 We did not care having votes on such unprincipled, indecent premises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And where this nonsense that the AFC undermined the process when the Joint Opposition Parties were working on the Dossier?\u00a0 These are statements which bring on the distrust! Let me make it quite clear that the AFC did excellently in meeting its obligation in getting that Dossier completed and printed.\u00a0 I wrote one of its chapters, Arguments as to the need for an International Inquiry<\/strong>, and the AFC funded $150,000.00 out of the $200,000.00 for the publication thereof from one of its members in the Diaspora. We helped in distributing it regionally and internationally. So where was the undermining by the AFC? \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0And as to Peter Ramsaroop, well what can I say about his allegations of the AFC being undemocratic.\u00a0 The least said, the better.\u00a0 Suffice to say that indeed his entrance into the AFC membership as CEO, against all the others who came as ordinary members, I must concede was most undemocratic. As a not too insignificant legal mind, I should have known better and clip such an accommodation in its bud notwithstanding a desire to build alliances. Happily, however, such an undemocratic act was quickly corrected.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What a nice start to alliance building!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was not surprising to me that the PPP Government and its State Media would have commenced an attack on the AFC after its public announcement of its decisions at its June 12th National Executive Meeting.\u00a0 What is surprising, however, is the magnitude and intensity of this concerted onslaught on the airwaves, newspapers and TV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latestnews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-jO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}