The AFC’s ego is beyond its numerical importance

Aug 02, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Reference is made to Mr. Raphael Trotman’s article “AFC’s decision to exclude PNCR not unanimous – Trotman” (30/7/2010).
The more the AFC speaks the more people realise that the AFC leaders are not interested in them. The AFC’s ego is beyond its numerical importance and it becomes more inflated when the media gives it coverage without asking the tough questions.
The more I read and hear about this party the more I think it is about keeping some people living off the sweat of the poor and powerless. There is absolutely no interest in the ordinary man who is in a constant flight because he cannot take it anymore.  Mr. Editor, here are the facts on the AFC. In the 2006 elections it won 8 percent of the votes.  The majority of those votes came from the PNC. The AFC has not pulled any significant votes from the PPP.
The party is prancing around and thinks it has the power to hold Guyanese hostage when the whole country is collapsing and people are screaming for change. All this nonsense around the party’s importance as against the people’s importance is revelation that this is a group of egomaniacs that thrives on feelings of misplaced importance.
The party’s recent commissioned poll showed Raphael Trotman as the second most popular leader after President Jagdeo. Later it was revealed the poll’s sampling frame was invalid which undermines its credibility. Some wondered if this poll was an effort by Trotman to influence the AFC to make him presidential candidate. After the tussle spilled over into the media it came out and said Khemraj Ramjattan will be the presidential candidate.
Besides walking around and talking fancy and the occasional snooty distribution of alms the AFC has done nothing for the people. Mr. Editor, nothing, nada!
Before the AFC thinks I am representing the PPP or an opposition party, let me put their hearts at ease. I am a Guyanese who is fed up your distortions, ineptitude and misplaced arrogance.  As a citizen and voter I am calling on the media to put the AFC under the microscope before it is too late and the voters get used again.
Navindra Persaud

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Mrs. Holder continues to misrepresent what happened at that ERC meeting

Dear Editor,
A letter by Ms. Sheila Holder in the July 20 edition of KN missed me. It was this weekend, someone asked me about it. I read it and here is my reply.
It was the second correspondence of Ms. Holder on her silence at the recent ERC’s meeting with stakeholders. I replied to her first explanation. Her second is fraught with troubling moments. I would suggest to Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan to vet what Mrs. Holder writes in the interest of the electoral prospects of the AFC. Mrs. Holder conceptualization of what political obligations are is highly flawed
Let us quote the extreme weak points in her second attempt to justify her lack of political commitment to fundamental principles of politics. Here is Mrs. Holder in her words; “I have a duty to persuade people to learn to fish and think for themselves; not to give them fish by telling them what was good for them as Mr. Kissoon wanted me to do.” This is incredibly flawed thinking coming from within the leadership of the AFC. Mrs. Holder continues to misrepresent what happened at that ERC meeting. Her convenient memory is worrying
At the beginning of the meeting, Juan Edghill asked the media to leave. I objected to that. So did Parliamentarian Everall Franklyn, Coretta Mc Donald of the TUC and the TUF representative (who later chimed in). What is this talk of Mrs. Holder of me trying to tell people what to do? The three of us objected to a violation of a human right. In her second letter she omitted those two names. Like Mrs. Holder, Franklyn is a parliamentarian and a politician but perhaps he understands his political obligations more than Mrs. Holder does hers. I never sought to get Mrs. Holder and those present in the room to do what I wanted them to do. All I did and I hope Mrs. Holder reads this line over and over again – I spoke my mind on a question of democracy  Edghill had no locus standi to ask the press to leave. Mrs. Holder does not deal with that point of mine which was carried in my first reply to her
In what has to be a huge moment of lapse, here is what Mrs. Holder wrote; “If the stakeholders had supported Mr. Kissoon’s position why did they not advocate for the retention of the media.” Maybe they were looking for Mrs. Holder to perform her “duty to persuade people to learn to fish and think for themselves.”  Where was that duty to persuade people? Who knows if Mrs. Holder had joined me, Franklyn, Mc Donald and the TUF delegate, our numbers would increased and the other stakeholders might have come around. In another time, I will ask Mrs. Holder to explain what persuasion is and how its works. But this I know, silence is the opposite of persuasion
Here is another quote from Mrs. Holder, and again the AFC leadership needs to sit down with her and advise her about her perceptions. “Without intending to be disparaging, the difference between my approach and that of Mr. Kissoon is in providing space for civil society to advocate on their own behalf the “change” they desire. I don’t know what got into Mrs. Holder head to write those lines but it is misplaced chauvinism while at the same time a poor attempt to obfuscate the surrender of the duty and obligation she so writes about in this particular letter.
Why Mrs. Holder thinks I do not want civil society to act on their own behalf? If getting people to demonstrate and go on a picket line and asking them to denounce wrong-doing is tantamount to leading them, well I say to Mrs. Holder that I have no apologies to make for such a type of action. And I will never see it any other way
I take it Mrs. Holder as a parliamentarian has an obligation to speak out against human rights violations. That instinct should be separated from one political itinerary. I insist that what Edghill did was wrong and those in Guyana who fight against wrong-doing had a right to chastise Edghill. Parliamentarian Franklyn did. But it would appear from Mrs. Holder second’s letter, her approach is a superior one to Franklyn. I would strongly advise Mrs. Holder to be careful what she writes. She is causing embarrassment to the AFC, a party I voted for the last time and may vote for again
Frederick Kissoon

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Method of procurement baffling

Dear Editor,
Congratulations to the Minister of Home Affairs for him being able to procure for the Guyana Police Force spanking new vehicles – thus reducing the number of times police do not react to reports of offences due to them not having transportation and secondly the water canon.
However I don’t know whether the police or the fire brigade will use it, “the cannon”, if ever at all.
But Mr. Editor what perplexes me is the method of procurement of these units. I don’t recall seeing any “invitation to tender” in the press – nor of their method of procurement through the tender board or otherwise.
Randolph Joseph Eleazar

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E-MAGINE is a disappointment

Dear Editor,
GT&T’S highly touted and much anticipated broadband service has been a major disappointment to the consumer in terms of the pricing. The price for the service has not been reduced; the elite service which they have introduced only offers speeds of 256mbp.
One would have thought that GT&T would have reduced the prices to about half on the higher speeds. Which still see customers paying $9,980, $20,000 and $30,300.
They have made a meal about the speed being offered when in fact in the USA and across some Caribbean countries you can get a much higher speed which is standard for about US$25 a month. We really need another company to offer Broadband at a much better price than GT&T is offering.
Michael Anthony

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Where did the President get his figures?

Dear Editor,
I find yet another attempt by President Jagdeo to be an insult to the intelligence of Guyanese with the mention of The Bahamas hotel occupancy rates to be 45% yet that country sees the need to build another hotel.
Where did Mr. Jagdeo get his figures from? The present occupancy rate of hotels in the Bahamas is in excess of 70%.
The following link should help anyone who may have doubts of this fact: http://www.thenassauguardian.com/news/business/hotel-results. I am definitely not questioning the motive of the President in such misrepresentations since his intentions are well known.
Debbie Persaud-Ramnarais