Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 09, 2019 Letters
So Rickford Burke, the organiser for all things PNC in New York and the founder and President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy, has gone rogue and is calling for President David Granger to fire some of his ministers.
Burke, who is also a political strategist and public relations guru, said last week that he is “sincere” in his writing that the Coalition will lose the next general and regional elections, if the President does not immediately shed some of negative baggage that is weighing down the Coalition and the PNC Party.
Burke who proclaims that he is a staunch Burnhamite, a loyal PNC and a supporter of “President David Granger, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and the coalition government’s vision”, said that he believes “the President does not have the right team around him to execute and realise the vision.”
Writing on his Facebook page, Burke said, “Some on the team have failed the people who elected them.”
And that the Coalition frankly cannot “afford to go to the next general elections with the same team, or the coalition may lose.”
Now the reason that I find this frank talking and knee jerking from Burke so refreshing is because I have been saying the same things for over a year now. Many times, the very Burke and many other diehard “PNCites” took me to task.
I was call a PPP stooge, a fake pastor, a comedian, a hater and other names, all intended to deride me because I sought to hold the Coalition accountable to the people, like me, who voted for them. I was told that I needed to give the Coalition time before I can hold them to a different standard than the PPP. They castigated and vilified me for pointing out semblances of corruption and PPP-style authoritative, heavy-handed, and disconnected kind of governance.
In two or three years (we are now in the 4th year), the Coalition Government had begun to behave in ways that resembled the behaviour of the PPP – behaviour that caused the PPP to lose in 2015.
Let me get back to Burke’s sentiments. What I noticed in all that Burke has said, is that he is teasing out that President Granger needs to fire “some on the team” but Burke is not saying who. And he might never say who. Not if he wants to enjoy any facade of political respite going forward. And the reason that Burke will never say who Granger should fire, is because he can only be meaning some very ‘big-up’ ministers. Ministers who helped the President become the President.
Burke fully well knows that President Granger was “made” the Leader of the PNC and then the President of Guyana. It is no secret that David Granger was not a politician; he was a military man all his life.
However, in 2013, the PNC needed a “clean” image; a spotless leader and no one in the upper echelons of the PNC at the time was adequately qualified.
Well, except, Dr. Faith Harding. But she was sidelined for her frankness and disdain for many of the behaviors of some of the folks who were vying for the leadership positions of the party. (Behaviors which Burke is only now addressing).
I know of this problem in the PNC party because in her last days, Dr. Harding and I spent many hours together, traversing Guyana, either providing interventions in the area of counselling, or seeking to monetize lands for mothers and single women.
Dr. Harding would spend many hours talking with me. I believed that Dr. Harding died a very politically hurt person. (Someday I must write about that).
I am saying all of that to say that Rickford Burke knows that if he calls names, he will end up like Dr. Harding; estranged from the party he grew up in and loves.
So he will poke the president, trying to browbeat him into firing “some” ministers, but Burke will never say who the negative forces are and who should be severed from “the team”.
But Burke, I believe, is being disingenuous by leaving the president to make that decision all by himself.
Burke is quite aware that the Army Brigadier, David Granger, was “made” the PNC Leader and the President, by some of the very people Burke now wants the President to sack.
Some believe that the relationship between the President and the folks Burke thinks should be let go of – is a parasitical one.
The host is the President and by extension the party, and the parasites are those who are killing the President and the Party (that is what is angering Burke).
And in a parasitic relationship, both the host and the parasite eventually die but the parasites are benefiting for the host and as such will not let go and the host can do nothing to get the rid of the parasites.
What I am happy about – if there is anything to be happy about – is that I have long been voicing the concerns of the likes of the Burkes and I am happy that they, too, have finally arrived here. However, if, maybe if, the likes of Burke had listened and followed my lead, we (yes, we, I voted for the Coalition), would not have come to the evening of an election cycle, now seeking to regroup.
I doubt the President will acquiesce to the prodding of Burke. It might be too late in the game.
Finally, Rickford Burke can refute all that I have said here by simply naming those whose political-heads he thinks President David Granger needs to cut off.
On his FB page, Burke closed by saying, “there must be drastic changes.”
Maybe he should begin those “drastic changes” by using his objective and professional wherewithal, and name names. But I doubt it!
Pastor W. P. Jeffrey
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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