The heart makes choices, yet it makes the same mistakes
The place at home that I spend in serious conversation with my wife is the kitchen. Most of the times my wife and I chat about my politics, it is in the kitchen. She likes to cook and I like to eat, so we end up in the kitchen together every day. After that we hardly see each other; I am in the study where I spend endless hours. This week we had some in-depth discussion about my politics now that I believe the APNU+AFC construct has failed.
I was speaking to her about David Granger’s lacklustre performance, the unstoppable decline of the AFC, and the evaporating legacy of Moses Nagamootoo. She asked me what I am going to do with my politics, since I feel so strongly about what is taking place. Then she looked at me with piercing eyes and said, “I hope you are not going to campaign in 2020!” My answer was I doubt it very much.
I sincerely believe that the APNU-AFC opportunity has passed. I cannot see innovative transformation, the kind this country needs. I want to be honest to my readers. I want to be honest with the dozens that stop me every week and seek explanations. The moment has passed. There isn’t going to be visionary, humane, caring, considerate and compassionate governance in this country. I don’t accept that the APNU+AFC Government will even go beyond being mediocre.
I invited AFC councilor Carlyle Goring and AFC executive, Leonard Craig to a fish and chips dinner on Thursday night at Nicky’s on Drury Lane in Campbellville after passing by the AFC head office, heading home from Kaieteur News. Obviously the topic was the AFC’s upcoming national conference (held yesterday) and who should win what and who should be in what position.
I offered my studied advice to these two young men who have a passion for politics and want to have a political future. Carlyle’s father, Keith Jonas, was a PNC Parliamentarian. We were friends during our UG days in the seventies. Life is funny; now I am the friend of his son.
My thoughts were that they should seriously assess their political future, because I do not think the Coalition Government will perform credibly, want to perform handsomely and want to take Guyana to higher horizons. I was blunt, but I was honest. What this entire nation wanted from the APNU+AFC Coalition after the fall of the PPP will not happen now or anytime near to 2020. As we were about to rise from our seats, I told those two prospects for the future that they should come to the realization that Guyana is jinxed.
Just before he left at the beginning of this month, over lunch, Dr. David Hinds told me he heard about there being a third party in the pipeline. He asked if I would help. My answer was that I was gone; gone to my home, gone to my family, gone to my pets, gone from politics.
The 2015 campaign with the AFC was my last hurrah.
Deep down I had high hopes, so high that they could have mingled with the clouds. My hopes were that Granger, a brand new PNC, Nagamootoo and the AFC would transform Guyana, and that greater freedoms were awaiting us. I see the opposite sadly and tragically creeping on us. The leadership of the government is an uncaring one. I see a creeping contempt for the poorer classes. I see banality, mediocrity, aridity, stupidity and corruptibility slowly taking over power in my country.
I have made my decision. I know the heart makes choices, but it makes the same mistakes. The story of my heart is the story of perpetual mistakes. Will my heart make the same mistakes as we draw closer to the 2020 elections? This time I am staring at the abyss, and I have the philosophical toughness to walk away. Whatever third party is coming up, I can only wish them well.
The Guyanese people deserved better from Granger’s remodeled PNC, the voices of those in the WPA that made promises to Walter Rodney, and the AFC that promised a better future.
Maybe the Guyanese people deserve a third party, but will the third party fall victim of that lust that Shakespeare chronicled so beautifully in his three plays – Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet?
They say home is where the heart is. I grew up without a settled home, roamed my life without a settled home. But Guyana will always be my home. My heart will always be in Guyana. But my head will remain in journalism and philosophy.