While there is no better option for any nation than democracy, it, however, can be messy, and this is on full display in Guyana as Elections 2025 approaches. Two stark visions are before the people.
President Irfaan Ali and the PPP have placed unity of our people, moving forward as one, soaring high together, and One Guyana as a priority issue for Elections 2025. In contrast, Aubrey Norton and his PNC, under the umbrella of APNU, a collection of one-man, one-woman parties, and the WPA, which has been dead for years now, have placed division and polarisation as a central issue for this election. They have placed “Afro-Centricism” as a priority issue, above unity and One Guyana. David Hinds of the WPA has issued several inflammatory, racist statements, targeting Indo-Guyanese. Norton, by insisting that the PNC will not condemn the Hind’s statements and by incorporating the WPA into the ranks of the PNC, has essentially given unconditional endorsement for Hind’s position against Indo-Guyanese. The AFC, similarly, has refused to condemn Hinds and the dead WPA.
There are no “ands, ifs, or buts” for Elections 2025; people have to choose between two stark visions: President Ali’s and the PPP’s vision of unity and One Guyana, with all races occupying equal rights vs. the Opposition’s vision of division and polarisation, with the hierarchical placing of Afro-Guyanese above all races. Never have political parties been so clear in what they ask the Guyanese people to vote for when it comes to racial politics. The Opposition has disposed of the pretence for unity. The PPP remains true to its more than 75-year struggle for a totally united Guyana.
Then there is the second stark choice for Guyanese – President Ali and the PPP have earned global respect for Guyana, whether it is on climate change, low-carbon development strategy, biodiversity alliance, programmes to address social welfare needs, infrastructure development, housing and water, agriculture and food security, education and health, etc. Guyana is today respected around the world. Global leaders have praised Guyana, as have international development agencies such as the IMF, World Bank, IDB, CDB, and Exim Banks of China, India, and the USA. Guyana is consistently garnering attention in global bodies such as the Security Council of the UN, which Guyana is presently serving as the president for the second time in two years, at the WTO, WHO and PAHO.
On the other hand, a US-sanctioned man is prepared to sacrifice Guyana to protect himself from American criminal charges. Sanctioned or not, he wants the people to choose him and, in so doing, rebuke the USA and solicit sanctions for the whole country. It is clear that he is trying to protect himself by taking cover as a political leader. He is shamelessly buying people’s perceived support and trying to buy votes. The world has never seen a more blatant attempt at perverting the democratic process, similar to Colombian and Mexican drug lords.
This second stark choice is simple: the Guyanese people are being asked to choose between President Ali’s and the PPP’s vision of Guyana being a valuable and admired global leader vs. the vision of an internally sanctioned candidate who cares little for Guyana but wants to use Guyanese as a shield to continue building a sanctioned, criminal enterprise, deemed so by the Americans.
The people clearly, weeks before Elections 2025, have begun to show their choices in these regards. It is clear that the vast majority have already embraced the unity platform with President Ali and the PPP. It is clear that the people want to partner with the USA. In these regards, the people have already demonstrated rejection of Norton, the PNC and the umbrella, and the AFC and the man who was sanctioned for international crimes, including robbing Guyana of more than $10B. Even members of the Opposition have been walking away from the unholy choices of polarisation and ethnic division and sanctions from the USA.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about an exodus of members from the Opposition to the PPP. I predicted then that the exodus will become a mad rush as Nomination Day gets closer. As predicted, that exodus now has become a rampage away from the opposition to the PPP. In the next couple of weeks, former members and activists of the PNC, AFC, WPA and smaller one-man, one-woman parties, such as GAP, which constituted APNU, will take the walk. Actually, the walk has become a trot and will soon become a sprint to President Irfaan Ali and to the PPP.
The latest endorsements for a second term for President Irfaan Ali and the PPP are Syndey Allicock, a former Vice-President under the David Granger-led PNC-led APNU/Coalition. Allicock, a member of GAP, served as Vice-President and Minister of Indigenous Affairs between 2015 and 2020, under President Granger and the APNU/AFC government. Allicock, a pioneer in community-based tourism in Guyana, believed that the coalition had lost its way and that he had seen enough to believe that President Ali can unite Guyana and transform our country.
Hinds, PNC leaders like Winston Jordon, and PNC operatives like Rickford Burke and Mark Benschop have resorted to name-calling. The choicest and most vile name-calling has been reserved for Indo-Guyanese who have taken the walk from the PNC to the PPP. People like Geeta Chandhan and Daniel Seeram have been called cosmetic props, imposters, traitors and slave-catchers. Afro-Guyanese have been called traitors, lick-bottoms, house slaves, etc. It is shameless that Nagamootoo and Ramjattan, by their silence, have accepted that this is what they were.
Notably, not one endorsement has come out for the Opposition. They have begun to endorse themselves. They issue long statements of self-endorsements to combat the endorsements for President Ali and the PPP for Elections 2025.