Old Kai: Chronicles of Guyana

MOSES ‘WILDERNESS’ CALL

- Is there a link between his call for a source to replenish dried-up AFC funds and reports of the USAID ‘Governance project’ providing covert funding to the Opposition parties?THIRTY pieces of silver was the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. We are yet to know at what price are the AFC and APNU willing to sell out Guyana’s sovereignty to the imperial forces behind the USAID ‘Governance project’. Both the AFC and APNU have come out in full support of the project even though the US Ambassador to Guyana has been less than forthcoming to the media about crucial aspects of the project. This is the very opposition which talks all day and night about transparency and accountability. Hence, why are they so keen on supporting this project which is shrouded in mystery?
What we do know is that our Opposition is ready and willing to hand Guyana on a platter to outside forces just to get their hands on power. We saw this recently manifest itself with the New River Triangle Geological and Geophysical Survey, where our Opposition was more concerned about neighbouring Suriname, than Guyana’s territorial integrity and our legitimate stance that the area in question is part of our 83,000 square miles of sovereign territory. Just to attack the Guyana Government, our Opposition was willing to sacrifice part of our territory. But this is nothing new as they have already told the Guyanese people that we are all ‘collateral damage’ in their quest for political power.
It should come as no surprise that once again, they are willing to take instructions from foreign agents even if it means that our people will be the ultimate victims. We have seen this before when the US funded the PNC dictatorship which reduced this country from the most progressive in the Caribbean under the Dr. Cheddi Jagan Government to the second poorest, only ahead of Haiti in 1992. Today, after two decades of hard and unrelenting work under successive PPP/C Governments, Guyana is the most progressive economy in the Caribbean once again. And what happens? The US through USAID has returned with a secretive project to undermine our progress.
Clearly, the US prefers nations which are economically weak and constantly dependent on their loans. There is a telling question which no one has asked to date. Why has the US not seek to implement its ‘Governance project’ in other Caribbean nations which are not doing as well as Guyana, such as Jamaica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados and most recently we read that Trinidad’s economy is not doing so well either. Clearly these underperforming economies need help. Why not help them? Why is the US only obsessed with Guyana, when we have been projected to record the second highest growth rate in 2014?

IS THERE A LINK?
This revelation gives greater impetus to the claims by the PPP/C Government that the Opposition is on a campaign to sabotage Guyana’s economy. Every major project to further transform Guyana they have opposed and tried to destroy. Even the money laundering legislation which makes it easier to track illegal financing they have opposed. Is the AFC/APNU alliance working for an outside force? If they are, then clearly they must receive payment at some point. With today’s technology and extra scrutiny of the nation’s finances and expenditure, it would make it more difficult to ‘covertly’ fund destabilization campaigns as occurred in the 60’s. So what better way than through a project shrouded in mystery and where the Guyana Government was totally excluded.  Is there a link with their refusal to support the anti-money laundering legislation?
We are left to ponder the Opposition’s staunch criticism targeting the Guyana Government for rejecting the project. Only recently, AFC Member of Parliament Moses Nagamootoo publicly lamented that funds for his party had dried up. At the same time, US officials seem determined to push ahead with the project but are withholding critical information regarding the full details, preventing the average Guyanese from determining whether or not they are indeed providing funds to the Opposition. It seems a strange coincidence. Old Kai is reminded of the quote by George Santayana, which was made famous in Guyana by another US-PNC product, Jim Jones, ‘Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.’