… chides AFC for undermining ethnic solidarity
Dr David Hinds, an Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), says the decision by the Alliance For Change (AFC) to send only African representatives to the protest organized by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is “unhelpful and ultra-conservative”.
Hinds in a letter to the press expressed his concern over a decision by the AFC to send its Chairman Nigel Hughes and General Secretary David Patterson to mount the APNU’s political platform on Friday at the protest.
The AFC had promised to give “critical support” to the protest organized by the APNU, but its top spokespersons and party Executives did not even turn up to mount the platform.
Party Vice Chairman Moses Nagamootoo and Leader Khemraj Ramjattan, who are both of East Indian descent, surprisingly were no-shows at the protest.
The party’s leader had hinted earlier in the week that, while the AFC supports the rally organised by the APNU, it played no part in the planning or organisation of the event.
The AFC also maintained that it believed that it was necessary to join the APNU’s platform which was organised to protest the President’s decision to prorogue the Parliament.
The AFC has been send ing mixed signals about its relationship with the APNU, but earlier this month, clandestine meetings started between the two groups.
But the AFC continued to argue that it would not be part of any coalition with APNU.
Surprisingly, the two parties have admitted to forming an interim coalition to fight the President’s decision to prorogue the Parliament. They have also been strategising to cause the collapse of the Government through a series of parliamentary action and extra-Parliament advocacy.
Some analysts say that the decision not to send the AFC’s East Indian politicians was deliberate as the minority party is still not certain how to deal with the message that such a move would send to its support bases in Indo-Guyanese consistencies.
In fact, Hinds accused AFC of continuing to be unsure of how to deal with the sensitivities about alliance with PNC in the Indian Guyanese community and the readiness of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to exploit this issue.
He said “despite Nigel Hughes articulate presentation, the decision not to send one of its top flight Indian Guyanese leaders to speak at the rally at the Square of the Revolution was ultra conservative and unhelpful.”
Hinds, believes that Nagamootoo speaking to the Indians at the APNU rally would have been a bold step in the direction of ethnic unity and reconciliation.