THE ALLIANCE NEEDS CHANGE

The Guardian has been following the debate over the AFC ever since its pompous establishment prior to the 2006 General elections in Guyana. I have always viewed this group with skepticism having been convinced that it was more focused on opportunism than genuine care for the nation and the well being of my brothers and sisters.

Any sane individual would have saw the danger signal flashing with so many political misfits cramped in one political ship, bickering with each other for standing with absolutely no loyalty for self or party, thus nothing to gain or lose.

Hence, to term this group as political mercenaries bent on sailing over the edge of Kaieteur in its desperate quest for 'El Dorado' is not an overstatement.

Runnings men - Asgar Ally, Khemraj Ramjattan, Boyo Ramsaroop, Joey Jagan etc. who were dumped by the PPP/C, a dash of ego in the form of Raphael Trotman from the PNC/R, spiced with the low self esteem of Sheila Holder of GAP, garlic pork Anthony Vieira of the UF who eventually snorted his way out the kitchen to the PNC/R (incidentally a party he was heavily critical of initially), seasoned with President in waiting for life, the eternal peeper Peter Ramsaroop (of the arson plantain chips manufacturing complex at Timehri) not to mention acid attack victim Gaumattie Singh (of the 'this i promise you' song by boy band NSYNC) and you had one expolsive mixture of eternal heartburn not even Zantac could cure.

To make it short, most of these people left the party at some point or the other in controversial fashion. But the musical chairs did not stop there, in between accusations by Michael Carrington of an elected dictatorship within the party (RamHoldTrot), you had irrelevant names such as Gerhard Ramsaroop join and leave the party, Sasenarine 'overseas based racist' Singh etc. trying to make a name for themselves.

With volatile characters such as Mark Benschop, Freddy Kissoon, Adam Harris, David DeCaries (deceased) and his minnie-me Anand Persaud of Stabroek, Enrico Woolford and a few if's and but's - both near and far, the population gradually came to realise that most of these men were in for the business as it has become profitable to oppose the PPP/C Government: CN Sharma, Glen Lall, Benschop, Kissoon are just some that live in castles but pretend they live in the ghetto. I was shocked to see the mansion in which a lowly (as he calls it) and poorly paid/bullied by the dictatorship lecturer lives in. This man's lawns are kept better than that at State House, yet this AFC supporter pretends in his daily rantings that he lives in a country akin to Eritrea.

In reality people then understood that these individuals were not only crying wolf, they were the wolf in sheep clothing and just as night follows day - they were derobed by their own words and actions over time.

A simple example is the recent admission by Sasenarine Singh that the party has collected thousands of US dollars of campaign financing overseas. The very day an individual he named as contributing towards this end wrote a letter denying he was a supporter of any kind to the party.

This did not only expose the deceitful nature of those within the AFC, it also begged a number of questions such as accountability of finance to party donors and justification of expenditure. I am beginning to suspect that the donors hard earned money has been financing the countless trips overseas and vice-versa by AFC officialls to meet everyone under the sun and by coincidence complete their personal work using party funding.

Another cause for worry is the party's seeming inability to maintain a reputable record with landlords across the country when they lease buildings for their offices. A few years ago they were evicted from their Region 2 party office having not honored their rental contract and only did so after the landlord threatened to go public.

Same situation existed for their Region 3 party office and has anyone noticed how many times the AFC has relocated its main headquarters in the City? In actual fact since its launch, the AFC has changed some four locations as its headquarters and is now located in Campbellville, said community where its new leader Khemraj Ramjattan reside.

I would not be surprised if it is located at his actual home and even more so that he was charging his party a rent in this regard. Such is the nature of the people involved, milk the organization for all it is worth.

In hindsight, the AFC was actually strategic in selecting its party symbol - a key for they have been unlocking a great many doors over the years and equally have had them shut tight behind their backs.

The AFC will take that key into the next elections hoping it will unlock something, anything; desperate to limit their downhill slide into irrelevance.

But the Guardian is not confident about their prospects as we are convinced that the ultimate landlord (the Guyanese people) will evict them from the national assembly for the very same reason as those landlords before us.