OPINION: Guyana elections: Rigging for Dummies

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 22:15 by Writer

by Paul Sanders, New York

It will probably take a degree in law. Or political science. Or whatever!

They should have seen this coming. Guyanese are living through the world’s stupidest era. Stupidity, while innately comical especially in the political sphere, often comes with a side of brutality. And we are forced to suffer fools.

It took, more or less, an excruciating half of a year to sort this thing out after the No Confidence vote in December 2018. The highest court in the Caribbean, the CCJ, had to teach simple, basic math to grown men as if they’re four-year-olds: that 33 is the majority of 65.

Simple, right? Tell that to the APNU-AFC bluff masters. The math was so easy it took colossal, painstaking details — jumping from one court hearing ascending to another — to get it through to them. And lots of time. And money.

So how did that happen?

First of all, the folks on the APNU-AFC’s side thought they were dealing with a bunch of illiterate, stupid, uninspiring idiots called the population. Nice try.

Secondly, political monkey business and plain old barefacedness and deception engineered by the APNU-AFC to reprogram simple arithmetical equations took them to entertainingly absurd ends. They failed the math litmus.

But that was just the preamble.

Since the March 2 elections, GECOM has invented mathematical problems in tallying up the ballots of 500,000 or so voters. Lots of daily drama — initially by a disgusting, repulsive character name Clairmont Mingo. His declaration of counterfeit numbers has provided enough stellar material to populate several lists on his own; followed by other APNU-AFC super villain qualities in the form of stupid, filthy, despicable maneuvers. Along with that, the clumsy, thuggish threat by Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Karen Cummings to strip international observers of their accreditation. Her antic was not only meant to intimidate, subjugate contrary opinions but to create a hostile environment and barriers to the final count.

From there on, transparency has become a lonely word.

There has been so much drama within the drama, so much intrigues, so much alarms, so much twisted facts, so much manufactured justifications that it has become clear to many that the APNU-AFC and its GECOM Commissioners are downright lying. And they are most reluctant to surrender to a clean, final count. This is called the science of rigging.

Of course, you have followed the consensus of Caricom and the attitude of international observers. It has been one thing after another, adding suspense, anxiety on top of the vulgarities and boneheaded indignities. The result? Nothing more than inspired skepticism and apprehension about the legitimacy of the entire system. You can thank the APNU-AFC for that.

Now that president David Granger has promoted a national recount it is time to appreciate the tremendous ramifications the Coronavirus pandemic will have on the nation — and the recounting process.

Well, it has. And it’s working well for the APNU-AFC. They have weaponized the fact of the deadly disease, using the contagion and the argument of workstations, and crazy logistical hypotheses for slowing things down. If you think this is yet another part of the dirty tricks of the APNU-AFC and its GECOM partners have come up with, then you are not alone.

Yes….slow, terribly, terribly slow counting process. Which country in the world takes 156 days to recount half a million votes? What kind of variables are they dealing with? No shitting here. These people have purposefully blunted their minds in order to steal the will of the people. And they are not even smooth or slick; just diehard audacious.

Now for a really good WTF. Add to the tension, the well-publicized narratives of David Hinds and Vincent Alexander have frustrated the expectations that people are so angry they are just praying that sanctions suggested by the U.S., Canada and Britain start kicking in.

In order to shore up public opinion, the APNU-AFC has fired another salvo. As a new ammunition in their artillery, a lobbying firm is now aiming at Washington, digging up dirt on opposition leader, Bharat Jagdeo, and the PPP’s rendezvous with China, Russia and Venezuela. This “Enemy of my Enemy” affair is supposed to be fun while courting a favorable tone-down from the Americans.

Now for some real, hard straight talk. The political standoff is Guyana’s existential problem. It did not fall down from the sky. It has been in the works since 1992 when the PPP won power. The Civic component which was touted as the representative of inclusiveness was a scam. The government never got around to initializing racial reconciliation or to harmonize social, economic opportunities.

Instead, the PPP administration embarked on criminalizing the state, connivingly blessed the incorporation of drug transshipment points while alienating its massive East Indian base of poor, rural sugar workers and farmers. Yes, while the big wigs were busy enriching themselves with corrupt practices, and drug dealings the folks at the bottom were buried in destitution, alcoholism, suicide.

Imagine 23 years of “rags to riches” for the party hawks; 23 years of pauperism for the distressed masses; 23 years of squandered opportunities.

There it is. Can you argue with that?

Today, APNU-AFC is staring at their own atrocities: the continuation of the psychosis of Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP.

And it doesn’t look good. For all Guyanese. It is a lose-lose situation since no one has ever been enchanted by the notion of a government of national unity.

For the Afro Guyanese who think that they are the true heirs of Guyana, and that power should be solely in their hands, ought to rethink the PNC legacy of rigged elections. Tribalism has never lifted them up, empowered them or delivered prosperity and abundance.

For the Indo Guyanese who like to think the pseudonym “Democracy under threat” is their battle cry should realize that the occultism of numerical majority, Apaan Jaatism has never worked to their true fulfillment; it has never been on their side. An examination of the PPP and its 23 years of arrogance will reveal the damage to the Indian psyche.

So how does it end? Just ask the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley. His prognosis is that it will “end badly.” Agree.

Which means that Guyanese will have to choose the devil they have had; or the devil they had had. Either way, nobody wins.

As always, the people get the government they deserve. You do not need a degree to understand that.

Paul Sanders is a former writer for Caribbean Daylight, NY. He currently writes mostly on American issues.