We now know that the main difference between the tyranny of the Ruling Party and that of the Opposition is exactly 4 seats.
The other differences congeal around the self inflicted wounds of poor leadership and indulgent support of leadership to nowhere.
The excitement at the prospect of a new Team Opposition, post 2020, was well founded.
But the orthodoxy of supporting a man because sentiment is- “he’s all we have”– gives rise to the subjugation of Party and by extension, an Opposition that under- serves an electorate which depends on its robust representation.
Robust is never to be confused with confrontational and belligerent. Here, it’s the characteristic that best exemplifies boiling but frozen.
People line up with herd – like reverence to defend the absence of any path forward. No substantive queries are posed to Leader Norton about the fundamental gears that propel a Party forward or the interacting policy that puts the ‘unity’ in the said ‘partnership’.
Instead, there’s this cauldron of misogyny that is ladled to the lips of those whose crusade is to shut down any statements –from women -highlighting the swimming ineptitude of the dude.
And this sustains the remorseless rise of this leader that has now brought them to his knees; as he contemplates when to call the Party’s constitutional Biennial Congress which is way past its call-date.
Talk about bending over a Party that has shown its willingness to adopt the posture.
They ceded their power to hold their leader accountable to the ‘dutty linen in public’ idiom…apparently oblivious to the ‘public’ part. The effort to keep public things quiet remains so amusingly counterproductive that it is mutually incomprehensible.
We, here at Xpressblogg.com have often been at the tip of this licking stick…subject of a collection of intended insults that highlight mediocrity, generally and shallow political thinking, specifically.
We dismiss it with the level of judgment that is Democracy’s civil religion.
The fact is, failure accelerates to doom when the publicity apparatus is so obviously spinning an image, by the bad job it is doing. There can be nothing good about an Opposition Party that is holding its members hostage by refusing to function; or handicapping the Party by weaponizing its loopholes to hang on to power.
It does not only reflect on the tyranny of the leader but it shows the unwarranted temperance of a team that seems to prefer being neutered by its tyrant, rather than fulfill its obligation to its electorate… which is not subjugation to a leader who is flailing on the job.
There’s a lot of talk about oppression…even more about dictatorship and the irony has recent comparison, when we contemplate that this tyrant took to traveling abroad to complain about another tyrant.
These are the behaviors that discredit that recent mission. And Party members make way for that with inexplicable docility and submissive acceptance.
This would have been the opportune time, we’re thinking, to respond to this full quote of the nation’s Prime Minister, cited with the pride of a political hatchet wielder, operating on ‘automatic’.
It’s the PPP’s silver bullet, the straw man argument, where they contend about something else instead of the argument at hand. Calling for historic response in the face of ‘current’ atrocities is their recurring go- to because it is never assassinated for the asininity in it.
But that’s not what this Opposition does and making that observation ensures a barrage of chastisement- strictly against female observers -from the huddled sages more dedicated to hiding what’s happening in public than calling the’ non-maximum ‘leader to order.
The Party is currently in operational abeyance.
The defenders of the Opposition reminisce on days gone by and muse over methods that were implemented six decades ago.
It all fits with their inexplicable temperance for this Leader of boiling passions and frozen politics.
It’s the humiliating contradiction of leadership that has been allowed to take form because of steadfast support in the name of the elements that comprise politics in the country.
We understand that and support every effort to course -correct the travesty that is the ruling Party’s policy document- that still, systemically, excludes Afro Guyanese as a political inheritance.
But correction will never be accomplished by pretense and contrived silence to cover public failure when there is vacancy in the Opposition’s strategist/tactician department.
And while Mr. Leader gets more months to accept that he will be challenged because of his incontestable ineptitude, the people who need the Opposition to function for them will remain unemployed, hungry and at the mercy of policing.
Let’s just say this.
Misleading Guyanese by any political entity, in our opinion, is strictly prohibitive.
We say this uninhibitedly, having no affiliation to any political entity or elected leader. Particularly, we’re especially critical of those who abuse the political emotions of an electorate groomed to interpret ethno -politics as infallible and therefore, their duty to support.
Racial grievance is an absolute reality in the Afro Guyanese community. But its exploitation for personal prominence and partisan gain reduces this grave injustice to a political pawn.
We have no conviction to be supportive of the Opposition Leader. Our disillusionment with the Opposition’s non performance travels a straight line through its consistent failures.
Sure, Mr. Norton won in ‘free and fair election’ per one limp, clichéd, unassuming, retort.
But that neither translates to effective governance nor a gag order for us not to call out his incapability, especially because he was elected ‘freely and fairly’.
Democracy, as an operating principle in Guyana, has collapsed into a racially emblazoned, quasi inclusive, policy vehicle that a resident diplomatic community endorses…by their very presence and continued foreign aid and diplomatic comfort. Not questioning this is not an option, especially since the trade off can be calculated in terms of increased regional presence by these western gift horses.
The answer is that, it is easy for these sellers of democracy to claim success in this two party country when the Opposition fails to take its place at the governing table, as the constitutionally recognized Subordinate Leader …and the Ruling Party is left to check the complete/received boxes on the questionnaire that verifies democracy tutelage.
Recovering/escaping from this creed of commitment to support failure, based on some ethno social similarities, will require facing unflattering facts…a useless Opposition.
We’ve already done that.
Similarities may be there but what we don’t have is an appetite for unending failure.
Might we add, the ‘rally ’round the flag’ calls in the face of Venezuelan aggression, as a dictate that we suspend or subordinate calls for domestic political efficiency, is an example of the lack of capacity to multi-think and therefore, task.
Closing ranks, in times of national crisis, is a patriotic knee jerk reflex that propels national pride to seek battlefield victory. To us, that’s as reflexive as blinking.
It is never to be conflated with domestic policy and its efficiency, which motivates national pride and participation. Expecting government efficiency and patriotic defense of national borders are not mutually exclusive expectations. They coexist…meaning they happen like we blink and breathe at the same time.
Patriotism, contrary to popular thinking, is a demonstration of national pride on every front …foreign and domestic. This makes political readiness just as critical everyday…especially for politicians whose continuous preparedness depend on practiced coordination during every interaction.
The sudden calls for a unified front in the face of foreign aggression reveals the unilateral governance that he PPP has assumed and the Opposition has allowed, since 2020. Unity of purpose cannot be realized by a feuding, factional Government. It occurs, mostly, when there has been constancy of practice to overcome policy differences for national good.
A war-time government has the unique responsibility of strategizing for battle victory simultaneously with keeping the domestic economy viable, to sustain the war.
Won’t happen here, with the Opposition being ignored by the dictatorship of the PPP and the US Dept of Defense’s agreement to meet with only half of Government because, in our opinion, the resident US Diplomatic Corp does not consider the Opposition as politically viable.
We will caution, though, that Agence de France seems to have spoken to Jagdeo only- a questionably credible source– on his discussions with US Defense Officials. That skepticism cannot be excluded from any analysis.
We can apply all of the popular topic- labels to the political demise that is Guyana’s national politics…Democracy in Crisis, Crisis of Democracy, Terrorism in Dictatorship…
What we’ll find-when we’re more informed than in supposition, more knowledgeable than of sentiment, more informed than of popular opinion, or more mature than the ‘if not this then that’ over- simplistic jelly-minded logic–is that the antidote to political peril is pointing out political failings of officials elected and appointed to deflect peril; irrespective of allegiance.
Failing that, it would be a lost opportunity not to take, even a little, advantage of historical hindsight in deference to the hard nosing that has removed political civility and sidelined the viability of the Norton’s Opposition; with the Foreign Community scoring a victory because the ruling Party has complied with their democracy tutelage, uninterrupted by the absent Opposition.
And, the people will continue to perish …in this decision to choose blindness over vision.