There are politicians who lead from the front, in good times and bad times, taking deserve credits, or perhaps coping, as necessary, during a seasons of disenchantment, and worse.
In our current national political scenario, Mr. David Granger, leader of the Peoples National Congress and parliamentary Opposition Leader, appears to have settled to ‘lead from behind’ when seemingly unable to come forward with creative ideas to help overcome problems in Guyana’s national interest.
Two most outstanding examples, easily referenced, would be his Party’s role  in defeating the government’s initiatives to make a reality the Amaila Hydro-Electric project, followed, a couple  months later, by the killing (with help from the AFC) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill (henceforth referenced as the “Money Bill&rdquo.
Briefly, after engaging in classic double-speak utterances, followed by some clumsy political tactics designed to ridicule the nation’s vital private sector organizations, Mr. Granger, aided by his Party’s primary spokesman on fiscal/economic issues, Carl Greenidge, was to make known the PNC’s interest in communicating its concerns over the “Money Bill” to the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), as reported in the media.
This posturing, let it be reiterated, was AFTER Granger, as Opposition Leader, had permitted the defeat of this vital ‘Money Bill’ in parliament. The Guyanese people are quite familiar with the adage about closing the paddock AFER the horse has bolted.
What a caricature of ‘leadership’! Vociferous in anti-government and anti-CFATF rhetoric, and without any significant indication of awareness about the grave implications for Guyana’s future social and economic progress in defeating the AML/CFTI legislation, Granger’s PNC is now indicating, post-facto, interest in communicating with the regional body that it had hitherto ignored; or worse, damned in ‘Comrade’ Greenidge’s vitriolic outbursts.
Nevertheless, if Granger’s PNC is truly serious about pursuing matured dialogue with the government and representatives of the CFATF, with a view to enabling a reconsideration by parliament of the “Money Bill’ it has killed, in cooperation with the AFC, then we must hope that serious efforts would indeed be pursued in that direction, in Guyana’s interest.
But wait! There is something else that Mr. Granger would need to pay attention to! It’s the need for adjustment to his understanding of the history of the local labour movement under the long years of rigged elections and “party paramountcy”, when it was the norm to undermine the labour movement and foment social and political divisions among trade union officials and workers.
That adjustment must deal with today’s social, political and economic REALITIES when trade unions are quite FREE to function without interferences from a freely elected and democratic government.
Granger’s understanding of Guyana’s party political history should at least temper his current obsession with denigrating the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), and, curiously, blaming the PPP-led government for, as he said, prevailing divisions and weaknesses of the labour movement.
One does not have to be an ‘historian’ to appreciate how “paramountcy” politics, under  PNC’s long rule — while ‘Comrade’ Granger was a Brigadier of the GDF and personal National Security Adviser to a Head of State — to know how the independence of the Guyana Trades Union Congress was suffocated under successive governments of the PNC.
It’s quite intriguing to know that ‘Comrade’ Granger is now engaged in seeking to malign the government and FITUG for a perceived “weakened” labour movement.
FITUG is quite well placed to defend itself, if it considers it really necessary. Its broad-based membership and timely interventions on fundamental issues of national interest would be known by the few better known affiliates of the GTUC, for example, within the GPSU.
Perhaps, Mr. Granger should be humble enough to focus a little attention on the constant, prejudiced, vitriolic attacks from among GTUC executive members who seem obsessed in stirring opposition to, and even hate against the government, instead of seeking to promote unity and cooperation. Their own union members are not deceived.