AFC becoming power drunk since it got to the throne
– WPA Executive Member
Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dr. David Hinds believes that the leadership of the coalition administration requires inspection in light of recent comments made by the Alliance For Change (AFC).
A few weeks ago, the AFC sent a statement denying that it has become an opportunistic faction of the coalition administration and has lost its political conviction. It said that these sentiments which were expressed by Hinds were totally unwarranted.
“David Hinds has elevated himself to the status of a self-proclaimed critic who sits in judgment of others and shelters under the new freedom which our Coalition Government has afforded and guaranteed him and others like him to express themselves, even as we are informed, in the Editorial columns of the state-owned newspaper.”
In his recent writings, Dr. Hinds said that such statements reek of political arrogance and power drunkenness.
The University professor said that he found the AFC’s statement to be troubling, since it betrays a political mindset that the nation has been fighting off for 60 years. If the Coalition government goes the way of previous governments, Dr. Hinds said that the AFC’s statement would go down as the first warning sign.
It is for that reason he recommends that the leadership of that party has to be scrutinized and checked.
“I have a sense which faction of the party wrote that statement, but since the others have not distanced themselves from it, they all, including those who I consider to be up-full, must bear responsibility for the authoritarian intent therein. In that statement, the AFC, whose ranks are littered with people who never lifted a finger in the fight for freedom, told Guyana that they are in the business of sharing out freedom.”
WPA Executive Member, Dr. David Hinds
AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan
Dr. Hinds said that while the party targeted him, the message to the country is clear. He said that the AFC has its usefulness and much strength, but on the matter of the fight for freedom they have no history or credibility.
“In my 40 years of political activism, I can count on the fingers of one hand those in the AFC leadership who I saw on the frontlines in the struggle in defence of and for freedom in Guyana. When many of us were being bashed, beaten, jailed and killed fighting for freedom, these people were nowhere to be seen. To paraphrase CLR James—what do they know of the fight for freedom who only freedom know?”
The Executive Member of the WPA said that there are people in the AFC’s short history who stood up to be counted, who were in the trenches, who know what the fight for freedom is and who are worthy of the positions they hold.
The University professor asserted, “My remarks are not directed at them. They are directed to those who we took a chance with in 2015 in the interest of the country. We knew that many of them lacked proper political upbringing. We knew that there was a preoccupation with office and prestige. We knew that there were vestiges of the old middle class chauvinism in the party’s ranks.”
“We overlooked the fact that the party’s rhetoric of new politics was a contradiction of the old politics of holding on to parliamentary seats that belonged to other parties. We knew that when we were on the streets after the 2015 elections protesting the stealing of those elections, the AFC, having secured its ‘quota of seats’ told us to get off the streets.”
Dr. Hinds said that one must ask if the AFC is indeed succumbing to the poison of power. He opined that the party has never embraced resistance as a legitimate form of political expression.
“No wonder they boast of the No-Confidence motion; they actually believe that that is what brought the PPP to its knees. So since they initiated it, they won freedom for us. Consequently, they could now decide who enjoys it and who does not and that narrow reading of history, if not checked, would lead Guyana right back to the dark days of dictatorship. It is not Joe Harmon and the PNC who publicly told David Hinds that he should be glad that they afford him freedom of speech; it’s the AFC.
That is instructive. It says to us that the new is not always better. It says to us that that party is fast becoming power drunk.”
Dr. Hinds said that the AFC sees it fit to use their power to attack and threaten him, but has not used it to recover a single cent of the public assets stolen by the PPP cabal. He said that the AFC has not used its power to push for justice for Courtney Crum Ewing and the many who were murdered by State and para-state forces over the last few decades.
“They have not issued press releases against the merchants of death that still stalk Guyana. They have not attacked the clear censorship and political bullying in the State-owned media. They stopped hollering at the PPP once they got the throne that the PPP had. They have not used their power to stand up for the dignity of street-vendors, the poor and the powerless.”
The WPA Executive Member said that the Guyanese people have to stand in the way of the AFC triggering a return to the cruel politics of pre-2015. Dr. Hinds said that he does want the Coalition Government to work, but he is not willing to pay the price the AFC is asking.