IN a hard-hitting syndicated television interview last evening, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, and Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira laid the blame for the eruption of terror at Agricola yesterday squarely at the feet of the AFC in general, and that party’s chairman and vice-chairman, Nigel Hughes and Moses Nagamootoo in particular. According to both Teixeira and Nandlall, the events that unfolded, from the protest action outside the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, to the mayhem on the East Bank four-lane highway, was a carefully orchestrated agenda that synchronizes with the convening of Parliament yesterday; and the ultimatum to the President to relieve Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee of his post within 48 hours was merely a facilitator to precipitate the series of events that they hope would force the Ramotar administration to demit office.
Nagamootoo has publicly expressed his disdain for President Donald Ramotar and it is well-documented that he is convinced that the presidency is his God-given right; thus he has proven that he will stop at nothing to unseat Ramotar.  Hughes has cunningly strategized himself into the leadership role of the AFC, which is trying to outdo the PNC/APNU in all its strongholds, beginning with the recent fiasco at Linden.
Hughes is also trying to restore his credibility after he had proven to be duplicitous in accusing Minister Rohee of giving instructions to Police officers to open fire with live rounds on the Linden protestors, citing phone records that he had subpoenaed that proved Minister Rohee’s culpability.  When produced, however, the phone records instead proved otherwise; and thus proved Hughes to be treacherously deceptive.
APNU’s Tacuma Ogunsye had unwittingly revealed the joint opposition’s plan to unseat the Government though acts of anarchy if it did not win the general elections of 2011; so these acts are not random but, according to the two senior government functionaries, well-orchestrated and engineered means being used to destabilize the country, with the primary targets being the Ramotar administration and the Police Force.
Justice Minister Nandlall posited that it is excruciatingly clear that the inflammatory situations at both Linden and Agricola were well-planned to consequence the desired outcomes of projecting Guyana to be an unstable investment climate, with the clear intention to stymie development and progress under a PPP/C administration, whatever it takes.
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan had called the victims of their Machiavellian actions, beginning with the budget cuts, “collateral damage” – not worthy of any consideration in the pursuit of their agenda; and Nandlall last evening decried the barbarity of leadership that would make victims of thousands of people, left stranded after a hard day’s work; schoolchildren unable to reach their homes, with nowhere to go in the darkness of night – with no transportation available even if they managed to breach the blockade; innocent citizens being robbed by criminals strategically placed by the political authors of these destructive actions, destruction of public property, people discommoded and left vulnerable to predators, mothers unable to reach home to pick up babies from nursery schools, critically-ill people unable to access life-saving healthcare, commuters in and out of the country being unable to travel to and from their planned destinations, especially with CAL suspending all flights until further notice.
Nigel Hughes seems to be Burnham re-incarnated, with the X-13 Plan being re-enacted to bring down another PPP government; and his overtly racist rhetoric is playing on the sentiments of a community long opposed to the PPP administration, even if their own leaders betray them, which they have done time and again throughout the history of this country.
According to the AG, the AFC is capitalizing on the situation that occurred in Linden, especially on the two later police shooting incidents. He said Hughes is being a political opportunist and that the Police Force is being rendered inactive in a volatile situation because of opposition ploys, with police being pitted against the citizens of various communities; while the political engineers, after having riled up the citizens and engineered inflammable situations that cause eventual destruction, mayhem and even deaths, return to their luxurious homes and their comfortable lifestyles, disregarding the fact that they have dislocated and endangered thousands of innocent people and little children.
The AG pointed out that the opposition apologists are blaming the Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon for the conflagration that erupted yesterday because he had stated emphatically at his press conference to the effect that the Government would not be blackmailed into forcing Minister Rohee to resign, but that is merely a smokescreen for their more nefarious intentions, because the protest actions started in the morning at the Magistrate’s Court before being shifted to Agricola; while Dr. Luncheon’s press conference was aired late evening on televised newscasts, so it was improbable that his statements were in the public domain before that. He said that Nigel Hughes and Nagamootoo are trying to absolve themselves of blame for the consequences of their strategies; but that they are fully culpable for all that happened both at Linden and at Agricola, and that they seem to be trying to outdo the APNU/PNC by using the latter’s own strategy to win support in PNC strongholds.
Former President Jagdeo had called that strategy and proclivity of the opposition to absolve themselves from blame for their duplicitous and destructive – even criminal actions, by putting the blame on others “The Corbin Syndrome”; but that syndrome pre-dates Corbin’s leadership and is a thread running through both PNC and AFC leadership.
Nandlall said that the notion being peddled that Dr. Luncheon’s statements precipitated the events at Agricola is a blatant fabrication by those who want to disguise their agenda and actions.