Dear Editor,
Please permit me space to respond to an article published in the Guyana Times Newspaper on Wednesday November 23, 2022 by Dr. Ramasamy who wrote “The AFC – which one of their MPs will walk if they are recalled”.
Editor, as I read this article, I thought it was a freshman in the political arena writing, but then again Dr. Ramsammy never matured politically in all his years. As I read his first lengthy paragraph, he seeks to tell a story as if he was part of the APNU or the AFC Executive. His bogus assertion that the AFC was and is assimilated into APNU inextricably has now changed to the AFC leaving the Coalition.
Then he jumps with joy to say that Norton will recall the AFC MPs and that we never deserved the nine seats in the first place. And later go on to say that Ramjattan will go on his knees and beg Granger not to recall the AFC MPs. And the “Anansi story” continues. He did not say how he, with prostrating knees (and a lot more), begged Jagdeo for his soup. He did not say how the party he formerly led, URP, and which attacked the Jagans’ PPP so despicably, could not win even a half seat in Parliament. He did not say why he joined the Jagdeo’s PPP which still deceitfully has Marxism/Leninism and Communism as the ideology and political objective respectively in its Party’s Constitution.
He writes so much of and about the AFC, yet claiming that the AFC is dead.
Let me answer his opportunistic and muddled mind. The AFC is a political party with an outstanding record over its last 17 years, notwithstanding mistakes being made. It is not controlled by any one man nor woman. It will not allow any cult personality to develop as in the PPP these days. It is still the hope for many people today. And its values will remain those of the liberal democratic order, inclusion, and the rule of law. We agree to argue hard, and agree to disagree.
As Dr. Ramsammy continues to attack the AFC and worry about the makeup of the party, it is obvious that he feels the threat which the AFC poses to the PPP. The combination of APNU+AFC is what removed them from office in the 2015 General election. It was the AFC’s winning 7 seats which made PPP into a minority Government in 2011. I can see his pain and it is coming again Mr. Editor. It is not that the AFC is dead. He wants the AFC dead!
I wish to make the point to him that the AFC’s decision not to participate in the LGE has nothing to do with losing its support base. Rather it has to do with the bloated and illegitimate Voters’ List that is long overdue for a House-to-House cleansing of all the grime and muck of dead and non-residents and duplicates we saw in the 2020 General Election recount.
Dr. Ramsammy continues his “Anansi story” by stating that Ramjattan hates the PPP and Bharat Jagdeo. Mr. Editor, every conversation I have had with Mr. Ramjattan, hatred is never there. Plenty aggression and honourable insults, as he has taught me is necessary in a liberal democracy. That is why I notice whenever Jagdeo is in Parliament, he always hails him out. Plenty respect there. Nobody hates Jagdeo or the PPP. What we do is to condemn the bad policies and corrupt practices by the PPP and its leaders.
Dr. Ramsammy, however, wants us to hate each other and propagates this ethnic entrepreneurialism which will then be exploited come Elections time. I do not hate Ramsammy, but I would like him some more if he wrote on SU-Gate; on the spy equipment that he granted approval for some years ago; on the failed Skeldon sugar factory; the Fiber Optic Cable project, the Hydro project and the Specialty hospital. He forgets the two decades under the PPP where Guyanese were suffering.
He should respect the truth that the AFC in partnership with APNU brought the oil and gas sector which the PPP has inherited. This sector ought to save our economy so that each household can afford to benefit from a cash transfer, each student to get free education from nursery to tertiary, and generally the good life for all. But, Mr. Editor, sorry to say what we have today is far cry from the ought. The corruption is blatant, the victimization does not have boundaries, the marginalization has no limits. Yet Dr. Ramsammy found it wise to write about a dead AFC. Yes…it was an “Anansi story”.
Respectfully,
Deonarine Ramsaroop
AFC Member of Parliament
