Does anyone get the sense that the AFC knew exactly what they were doing when they injected race into the Linden electricity tariff issue?
In the 2006 elections the AFC had declared its multi-racial triumvirate leadership core signalled the addressing of the concerns of all Guyanese ethnicities. But when the time came for voting it was only able to attract voters primarily from the PNC that had failed to excite its traditional constituency.
In the November 2011 elections, however, the PNC sought a metamorphosis as it pulled in individuals from a panoply of fringe parties to declare it was now “A Partnership for National Unity” (APNU). Just as crucially, it jettisoned the older leadership, reached outside its traditional corps of leaders and selected David Granger as its Presidential candidate. Granger brought his organisational skills to the table along with a cadre of committed ex-GDF officers.
They reversed the ennui within the PNC faithful and pulled them back from the AFC in the last elections. For the AFC, they were fortunate they were able to provide a home for disaffected PPP executive Moses Nagamootoo. He was able to woo traditional PPP supporters, especially from Berbice, who had been disaffected by the travails in the sugar industry and by local officials who has drifted away from the grassroots.
The AFC therefore had become a repository for the ‘protest’ vote from the two traditional camps.
After the last elections the AFC did not take too kindly to the gravitation of its 2006 votes back to APNU/PNC. And its response was to destabilize the new emergent responsible politics. This was brought out most clearly in the Linden electricity subsidy issue now playing out.
After the government proposed a gradual equalisation of electricity tariffs between Linden and the rest of the country in the budget, APNU agreed, after extracting some concessions from the government including a larger rise in the government old age pension. The AFC then launched into the politics of outbidding: it rushed down to Linden and accused APNU of ‘selling out”.
The latter was forced to protect its flank in the classic predicted response in ethnic politics. The AFC has continued to ratchet up its bids to Lindeners and APNU has matched it blow by blow. The end result is the loss of 3 lives and untold destruction leaving the community of Linden worse than it was before. Using the frustration of the Lindeners the opposition alliance has been given a new beating stick to wring concessions out of the democratically elected PPP/C government quite like the PNC used 'mo fire, slow fire' to reduce Janet Jagan's presidency to 3 years.