It is said better late than never. Well, the APNU (PNC, for me) came out in a clobbering mood. In what is sure to be a time of warring headlines, overpowering manifestoes, and bristling campaign theater, the stage is set for the grand roundup and the final long gallop to September 1. The omens indicate that exciting times are ahead in the next 50 plus days. May the times stay exciting and not get interesting, with Chinese flavorings.
For starters, whoever believed that the PNC’s best days are behind it, should find a new religion. For the first time, I believe that Mr. Norton may have spoken right. Defectors and crossovers are not causing him to lose sleep. If that sizable crowd in one spot in Georgetown, then they will be coming out in Stanleytown, Buxton, Bagotstown, and Jonestown (aka its Latin name, Agricola), plus other townships, and those villages where the people’s ships have been docked and stuck. With the crowd in front of him, and the wind at his back, the PNC leader was in fine form.
From what I saw in some clips, read in the papers, Aubrey Norton was riding on a high-speed motor. The revs could be heard all across Guyana. Money, more money, and money like the PPP never mentioned in the last five years. Promises galore: 35% increase for public servants right away. Beat dah waan Bharrat bhai. Income tax threshold increased to $400k. Looks matchable by the PPP. Say the word Bharrat and say it well in this season of promises. People don’t want to hear about inflation, not when they are dealing with starvation. Step up, brother; step up to the microphone. Mr. Norton has spoken, and more than once. A big cash grant for students was another Norton-Fernandes-Mahipaul promise, all of $120,000. Frankly, I am peeved. What happened to old people? And then I stumbled across a big, bold promise: $100,000 in dinero for the elderly. Sorry, brother Jagdeo, but it looks like Aubrey just snatched many of those100,000 plus citizens already in the pensioner bucket. Oh, they will vote, even if from a wheelchair or a hospital bed. To date, I haven’t read any promise involving money to any group of citizens that was less than six figures. It is going to have to come from somewhere. But where?
I try my hand with two ideas. Either Mr. Alistair Routledge will have to get used to seeing and dealing with Mr. Norton. Or the local contractor class (and their supporting cast of comrades) just went to the North Pole to count their offshore cash piles. Putting on my old betting hat, I foresee the contractor class getting wacked. The PNC makes promises, I make predictions.
Aside from the cash, the one that arrested my attention was the commitment to justice for all. Jesus Christ! (sorry, I erred terribly), but Guyanese do need law and order, respect for both, and justice. Not just for PPP or PNC cronies, but for all Guyanese. I could come out and vote just for that one. I plead time to think. For Jagdeo is due a hearing, in the interests of a fair shake, to determine how he matches that, if he could at all.
Now, for a nonmoney look at that sea of green over there by the Square of the Revolution. I have a little problem, which could be a big one for Guyana. Having been put out into the barren wilderness for the last five years, while the oil money was rolling in by like if koker door bruk, I am thinking of the way in which those good folks would react on being told on 9/2 (or 3 or 4) that they lost. It looks neither catholic nor kosher nor angelic for Guyana. In weighing the stiff resistance of the PPP Government re calls to release the last census numbers, the local wicket just became stickier. And the way that the millions and billions have been parceled out and shared out, is another hammer to the heads of the have nots. And now that Mr. Norton came out with his head-spinning money here and money there, and money for dis baady and dah baady, the elections just became infinitely richer.
The ball is with Dr. Jagdeo. No one wants to hear about that is what the PNC is planning to do. Spen out all de money, and in the process teef out most of the money. Guyanese voters want to hear BJ’s package of goodies, and he had better be taakin bout money. Guyanese can’t be this rich and this wretchedly hungry. Or floating on prosperity but with one foot in poverty. The 2025 elections just became all about money. Now who is going to promise more, capture more voters?
