Guyana: In search of tomorrow          By Paul Sanders, Caribbean Daylight, NY, February 2015         

So this is what it comes down to.  A coalition. 

Fifty years in the making: that's counting the ephemeral PNC/UF partnership in 1964 (some of us weren't even born then); and Dr. Cheddi Jagan's formula - the National Patriotic Front that never got off the ground.

So much for people coming together in Guyana.  In the name of nation building.

The APNU/AFC coalition for the upcoming May 11, general elections is historic in many ways.  Once again, the beast is at the front door.   He's dangerous.  And he's voracious.  It'll take the entire village to take him out.  This coalition, they say, is the amalgamation of all opposition forces, along with civic organizations and unions, student bodies, women's movement.

In other words, Guyanese are coming to their senses, damn it.  As it did in India, St. Kitts and Nevis.

Make no doubt.  They are ganging up on the corrupt PPP.  At this point, there's no bad reason not to pile up on the gangsta party.   And so you'd think the announcement will be met with euphoria, right?  Not everybody, as in everybody, is down on that.

Yup, for sure, not everyone's is screaming "Halellujah."  Some people have gone batshit crazy.  Totally.  PPP's tactician and brainstormer, Clement Rohee declares the AFC will die, or end up badly wounded.  Facebook was spilling over with some sheet that only mad people could relate to.  There are some folks already running for the hills.  You'd think ISIS is on its way.

There is an anecdote that uncle Thana, an ole timer and staunch PPP supporter who didn't make it rich, nevertheless, suffered a heart attack after the news flash.  He was at a "bottom house" meeting where Apaan Jhaat is usually extolled..... and cryptically and, sometimes, openly sermonized.  PPP's prodigy child and brainiac Neil Kumar has the dynamics of that story.  And by the way, it was an exclusive for, who else? ..... Guyana Chronicle, a nasty rag under the label "newspaper."

So what's going on here?  As anticipated, the rulers did not waste any time getting reactionary, resorting to exploiting the dead.  Like Burnham who died 30 years ago.  This is one area in the PPP's political thinking that they have perfected into an art form.  And science.  It has become a sort of battle hymn.

Given the demographics, you hear this mantra everywhere: 28 years of PNC dictatorship.  These folks are like zombies; they keep the pain -  they love it.  They water it with their tears, their memories; they hold on to it like a rosary; they cry bitterly and jingle that tagline like the Lord's prayer.  It's a wonderful scene to watch them getting it on ... on this.

The paradox with these people is that they are willing to accept the PPP's 23 years of gangsterism, subscribe to its degeneracy and be cool about it.  Even though 23 years of scam artistry, underdevelopment, highest murder rates, suicides.... you know it - is making 28 years of PNC dictatorship look like child's play.

Some kind of trauma, huh!  But it works every time.  This " 28 years" thing has become their identity.  They can't - they won't let go.  Good for them.

Good for the PPP too.  Their onslaught is on a ghost.  They are working up a sweat beating an issue that went away since 1992.  But they are trying to market it as today's snake oil and hope that Guyanese ( the elders)  will return to, and live in the past.  The nostalgia of Burnhamism should keep these people completely, permanently chained to this "28 " years business.  The PPP is counting on this theology.  Oh please, somebody tell them ..... this horse is dead! 

There is a new voting bloc out there.  Youths.  And they don't know what the hell these PPP proselytizers are yapping about;  they don't care too much about it anyway, because they are living in hell.  Under the PPP.  Trying to blow their minds with this "28 years" crap is like selling them the kind of "penile" enlargement you see on websites.

Why don't the PPP boast about their 23 years of democray?  That's a high horse they need to get on.   They won't.  But Freedom House wonder boy and think tank, comrade Hydar Ally, has the perfect excuse.  Here's his Leninist scientifc justification for the cesspool that is now Guyana.  The man claims that the PPP's failure to "modernize" Guyana was "obstructed by an unsupportive opposition."

Really, comrade Hydar Ally?  Is that it?   C'mon, you can do better bullshit than that.  Let me be brutally frank here.  As a "Soupie" in the hierarchy of things at Freedom House, this man deserves to be fired.  With immediate effect.

If the supreme commander Kim Jong Un was your boss, comrade Hydar Ally, you wouldnt be surprised that you could have just mysteriously disappeared... without a trace.  Like that Malaysian airline.  Just for pushing that "stupid" line as fine propaganda.  Lucky you, comrade Hydar Ally, standby.... you are only entitled for a "slap" for being ... "stupid."  The "slap" Master will be making his rounds.  Soon!

Seriously.  If comrade Hydar Ally really wants to be honest, he'll see the modernization of Guyana at the upscale Pradoville 1 and 2, at the exclusive neighborhoods of " family and friends" of the PPP; he cannot fail to admit the fancy lifestyles of the plutocrats, the kleptocrats, the autocrats, the aristocrats, the bureaucrats and the kingpins as they parade in their high end toys.

But comrade Hydar Ally will not highlight that as development because it does the opposite.  It accentuates, instead, the widening gap between the rulers of the nation and the masses.  Just take a look at Guyana, away from the few elites, and if it doesn't remind you of Haiti then you are made of different material.  Let comrade Hydar Ally and his collegues from the PPP tell us how Guyana has deteriorated from a "bread basket" to slums.  Now that is progress.

Here's a simple observation.  Have you ever heard of any minister of government, or any of their powerful friends complain about blackouts, floods, crime, VAT, medical care, education?  No.  Because they are well insulated from the rest of us.  Do they care?  Why should they?  The country has become their playground; the national treasury is their personal bank accounts.  These people live large; like the first-class passengers on board the Titanic, they have all the fun.

The PPP must talk about their 23 years of development that they initiated.  Can they recall anything of monumental pride under the PPP?   Berbice Bridge?  Amaila Falls?  Not unless, we are talking about the endless scams: the milk scam, the stone scam, the law books scam.  Let us review the wonderful work of Roger Khan and his "Phantom Squad" under the kind courtesy of Home Affairs minister Ronald Gajraj; give us the prosperity of GuySuCo; the story of NICIL; the rising infant and maternity death rates.

And there is much more.  If the PPP wants talking points, then talk about the living reality.  Guyanese live these issues everday.  Is there a need to exhume a 30 year old corpse, and beat the crap outta him?  So why the retrograde steps?  Because they got nuttin.  That doesn't mean they are weak.  The PPP has an arsenal of old habits; they will stop at nothing.

Don't forget; Guyana is a criminalized state.  The PPP is a criminal enterprise.  They still has their thing going with the underworld.  That means scare tactics, intimidation, harassment, abuse and general thuggery, in various forms, will be part of their ball game.

Force and coercion, no doubt, will be an integral player in their bag of tricks.  Well dressed goons will have their days cut out for them. They know they can't be wrong; they'll have the power of the state right behind them.  Which should remind you of KwameMcCoy and Odinga Lumumba - two very nice fellas trying to make friends on elections day in 2011.

By now, you should get the idea that the PPP is not going down easy.  They have too much at stake. For one, they know should they lose this elections, a thing call justice will take place.  It will reign like the black plague.  That's bad news for the fat cats.  And when there is nowhere to run or hide, and no more money to hide, then a lot of personal freedom and assets will be taken away.  It will be a lifestyle change.

That is why this coalition must work.  It must, as first order, throw the bums out of office.  Dismantle the parasitic class; reset priorities and move this nation into the 21st century.  It is the act of putting square pegs in square holes and let the fittest perform at the most optimal levels, unleashing the vast human potentials which is what being a true patriot is all about.

More importantly, this coalition must not fail.  It is the biggest, most ambitious declaration of bridging the racial divide.  And this is what makes it so attractive.  It is the first time, after a long time, that the two dominant races will figure out what makes them more unique as a unit and what separates them as a distinction, yet overwhelmingly compelling enough to fuse a national character.

Don't even think of preaching that to the PPP.  They are so dysfunctional, so morally and intellectually broke, so entrenched in corruption and malfeasance, so thick with drug runners, gun runners of the underworld, so deeply rooted in backward psychology that this idea of coalition politics is the last thing they want to hear.

But preach it anyway.  The APNU/AFC coalition is a referendum of the people, whether Indo and Afro Guyanese alike are willing to take more of the vularity and madness under the PPP, or whether they can be self respectful and intelligently bold enough to say No More. 

Take it or leave it.  The coalition is one helluva start. This breakthrough has to be a guarantee, not a gamble.  A real game changer.  So brudda, put on your game face.