The Alliance will destroy the country if they get elected (smile)

You mean they would destroy bauxite, sugar, and now the rice industry?

The Opposition of the 10th Parliament can be suitably compared to the Republican members of Congress from 2008 to 2014. They were more preoccupied by un-electing Obama.

I agree the combined opposition has always negative instead of also showing it can govern. But let's not forget they had many reasons to be bitter. As a matter of fact, PPP wants the opposition to always be negative. I've always said don't fall for the bait.

And much like the Republicans in our Congress, this strategy of focusing on "un-electing" the President works so well

Just look at former President Obama today

When did the PPP ever stop them from sponsoring and passing progressive legislation targeted at the vulnerable groups of society (which is just about everyone)?

Politics as usual. When very bright people become so blind they can't see the forest from the trees.

The PPP never stopped them. So what they did was focus only on negatives instead of showing how they can govern in the interest of the people. Having said that, I fully support blocking Amaila which was shaping up to be a national financial disaster. Hey it's standard in politics...the Republicans are in the same dilemma now. If they want to kill Obamacare then they must have an alternative.

Last time I checked, he was enjoying his retirement in Hawaii. Or was it in his birthplace, Kenya?

He was born in Hawaii.  His father was born in Kenya.

Really bai? Really? Thank God you're around chap. Where would this forum be without your vast intellect and encyclopedic knowledge of all things political and presidential.

Can you also tell us where the Queen of England was born?

Do people in Canada drink this early on a Sunday morning?

It must be a Canadian Coolie practice of Sunday Morning drunkenness.

He's the kind of idiot that probably wonders why the Queen of Canada bears such a striking resemblance to the Queen of England

He and Yugi.

I think they're just too afraid to ask why the Canadian Elizabeth seems to resemble so closely the British Elizabeth

Why you guys picking on the Canadian, this thread started about Guyana politics. By the way Canada was voted in the top five country to live, ahead of the not mighty America.

No body not even CN Sharma can destroy Guyana more than what the PPP did in the last 10 years.

And this is my point.  There is common agreement that the PPP is corrupt and arrogant. Repeating that doesn't strengthen the APNU AFC at a time when they controlled parliament.   All this does is encourage voter apathy, as they see the opposition as weak, useless, or maybe no better than the PPP.

What they need to do is to paint a vision for a different Guyana, and hope that electorate doesn't punish them for being unable to use their parliamentary control to at least attempt to block the PPP from its depredation.

The problem is they take on battles that have very little positive payoff. That's always been my position and I received my fair share of cussin for saying that. PPP baits them to be negative.

Valid questions.

The New PNC Party consists of a bunch whiners and complainers. Moses and Rumjattan are the biggest among the whiners and complainers.

As Kaz pointed out, they behaved like the Republicans trying to un-elect President Obama.

The Opposition has often demonstrate it's LAZINESS and lack of concern, so I dont see why any Guyanese would elect such a Group to Govern them. With POWER they will become even more LAZY, arrogant and certainly will not be good for the Guyanese People.

Little positive payoff for who? Themselves or the Country? They care more about themselves rather than the country, if you asked me.The AFC and the APNU practiced and showed how bitter they were against the PPP and that bitterness had a negative impact on the country.

In all fairness, the PPP did not intend to listen to anything the Opposition suggested.

Opposition told them Surendra was bad news.  PPP said AFC was against progress. Same with Amalia and Fip, and we can go on and on.

What I find disappointing was that unlike in Trinidad where people went to jail for corruption, in Guyana the Opposition was not able to put anyone in jail, with such massive corruption.

One good thing that proroguing did was to force the APNU AFC out of parliament, so that they can see what is really happening.  I don't know whether they have made good use of their time though.

It often appears as if APNU and the AFC live in a bubble.  Unless they stop doing this many will not vote, disillusioned by the entire political environment.

And why would the PPP listen to APNU AFC?   It was up to the opposition to use their parliamentary strength to attempt to reduce the PPP's bad behavior. And to go out and meet and educate the population about this.

Well, isn't that why we are heading into elections again, because the PPP would not listen to anyone although it was a minority?

Guyana now needs people to work together.  None of us is as strong as all of us.

They really showed the PPP by appointing a Speaker who did his best to be as "nonpartisan" as possible instead of ruthlessly using the powers of the Speakership to bring the PPP to heel. Bully them. Beat them down with blatantly partisan rulings for maximum political advantage. Expel Rohee from the Chamber for any silly reason. Maybe he didn't wear a tie. Or had unpolished shoes. Humiliate them.

Amend the Standing Orders to relegate Government Business to the last item on the sitting agenda.

But no, abbe nice bais in the Opposition wanted to play by Marquis of Queensberry rules.

51% of the population rejected the PPP, so why do PPP idiots think that they are Lord, and that all must bow to their will?

The problem with APNU AFC was that they were too SOFT on the PPP.  Marriott was a bad deal.  Did they block it? Why were they so powerless when the PPP is a minority gov't.

The opposition could have used their position to educate Guyanese about how the PPP has compromised the judiciary to the point where many of the judges bend to their will, and disrespect the will of the people.

It was pathetic to hear their squeals for CARICOM (who are they but a bunch of heads of state, who almost always protect other CARICOM heads of state), and the ABC nations to protect Guyana.  As if the ABC nations don't have more important things to worry about.

And this why when the AFC fanatics scream "PPP baaad" and think that Guyanese will automatically flock to their side, they are making a huge assumption.

Many Guyanese just see the politicians as a group of petulant infants wailing for attention, totally uninterested in representing the will of the people.

So the question will be who will show up on May 11th.  I know that the PPP soup drinkers will. 

Guyanese will not work together until those who lead get to work and mobilize them to do so.

Still watching out for what the AFC plans to do with the rice farmers.  This is a gift waiting to be plucked, given the arrogance of the PPP.  So what is the AFC going to do about this?  Aside from telling the farmers what they already know.

Could you imagine if these morons had passed bill after bill to benefit core PPP constitutencies particularly and the whole of Guyana generally?

Maybe free tuition at UG for the sons and daughters of canecutters and low level public servants and Disciplined Forces?

Maybe protections for rice farmers and a guaranteed price support for rice farmers?

Maybe a Bill for affirmative action in the private sector for Blacks and Amerindians?

Are these idiots so devoid of ideas?

They could have made life miserable for the PPP and come out looking like heroes regardless of if Ramotar assented to these bills or not.

If they had any sense (and they don't), they would demand Parliament be recalled to pass legislation to provide emergency price support for the rice industry and also enact various basic long term structural reforms to the agricultural sector.

Parliament, notwithstanding its dissolution, can be recalled for matters of such importance.

The fact is that the could have passed legislation, which required a simple majority.

They could have also spent the last 3 years moving around the country, educating the population, soliciting these ideas, and working out solutions.  Putting pressure on the PPP.

Had they done so, rather than hoping that they would carry region 3, with its large rice farming community, that region would have been filled with people loudly expressing their intent to vote issues, and not race.  We do have such talk at the leadership level, but has it percolated down to the ordinary farmer?  We don't know.

They don't even have to have parliament reconvened.  Thy just need to establish the necessary legislation and challenge the PPP to allow an emergency session to allow the vote.

We all know that the PPP will refuse, and so they can then tell the rice farmers exactly how little the PPP thinks of them, and exactly what they will do should the rice farmers support them to ensure victory.

this makes no sense . . . pandering to their ethnic base is a Freedom House game

the PPP would have raised the opposition either by larding up the bill or tabling their own monstrosity . . . they have nothing to lose

money to burn . . . patronage and contracta bais would be in heaven

sullen Black people watching on helplessly

what kind of governance is that?

as to:

"a Bill for affirmative action in the private sector for Blacks and Amerindians?"

seriously . . .?!

So why did the INDIANS (Nagamootoo and Ramjattan)  in the AFC refuse to show up at that APNU based rally.  The AFC black leaders showed up.  Almost no Indians were present at that rally.

Rest assured with a racially polarized electorate racial considerations are very much in play.  When Granger insists that he is seen with Amerindians and East Indians, don't fool yourself that there aren't ethnic considerations at play there.

You intimidate the opponent, and maybe attract some of the fence sitters by showing strength in the opponents backyard.  Region 1 is a PPP stronghold, as is Region 3.  Granger made a tactical decision to meet people there to send a message in a very ethnically polarized political environment. Knowing full well that it will be interpreted through an ethnic perspective. 

Now I happen not to favor ethnic based affirmative action in Guyana because there is poverty all around, and no one race has had the historic racial dominance in Guyana akin to what whites in the USA have had.  But Shaitaan was just raising a point.   It would have been better phrased in terms of economic/social development for Linden. and South G/town, which would help the same people which his overtly ethnically based affirmative action program would have helped.

Redux don't ignore the fact that no PPP crook has been brought in front of the courts and the criminal behavior, even by PPP ministers, has not had any adverse consequences on the guilty parties.

This is hugely disappointing to many people who now consider the APNU and the AFC to be eunuchs.  This will be an issue which the coalition will have to confront, and there are ways that it can do so, beyond hysterical rants of "di PPP baad".  

I think Granger has already begun to address this issue in terms of discussing how state entities can be made to be more transparent, to reduce the likelihood of major corruption, or cooptation by powerful interests.

Democratic electoral politics has always been, is currently about, and will always be about pandering to various groups of all kinds (especially ethnic groups.) Guyana isn't so special in this one regard.

I'm glad you think Government is more august and high minded than this. It almost always is not. Even the great Constitution of 1787 was the product of shameless panderings to various groups mixed with high minded ideals.

Lastly, I mentioned affirmative action for Blacks and Amerindians not as some Gospel but as some random example of something they could have passed in Parliament. As usual you miss the point of post as you get lost in the weeds or in most cases a single weed.

On this issue. Caribj rightly points out that Indians have comparable maybe even higher rates of poverty in Guyana and a superior approach may be that of geographic poverty eradication strategies. This was articulated well by President Hoytle in Opposition.

My point was to come forward with specific positive Bills to pass which would be difficult if not impossible to oppose.

The Opposition did not do this. Cutting the budget doesn't really impact the lives of ordinary people at all positively. What it does is makes the Opposition look heartless. Ordinary people in a Third World country do not view budget cuts well.

shaitaan, if you weren't so careless, and paid attention to my 2nd paragraph, you would have found the context for my observation that  pandering to ethnic constituents is a "Freedom House game" . . . meaning that the Opposition (and Guyana as a whole) will ALWAYS lose a race to bring home the most bacon to Indos in the present dispensation

anyways, i'm multitasking right now, and need to streamline lil since you and caribny are all over the freaking place . . . and i have only so much time

so, just so we can bring sanity to the table, i suggest y'all 2 take a read of Article 171, esp 171(2)(a)(ii) of the Guyana constitution, and perhaps come again, before i proceed to eviscerate y'all idiot prescriptions

your unserious or (likely) insincere [take your pick] nonsense about "affirmative action" i leave for later