Commentary

It is really curious to note that the Guyanese media is taking up the mantle of the defunct PNC party as the new opposition and taken it upon themselves to castigate and pass judgement on the government.

 Stabroek News on one hand is clearly an Alliance for Change newspaper, this is evident in every publication of the paper, yet still they promote themselves as being balanced and fair and providing adequate and fair coverage to all parties.

These Robb Street hustlers need to review the content of their publication on a daily basis and then pronounce with a straight face that they are indeed balanced and fair in their content.  But then that would prove nothing, as barefacedness is the order of the day in the local media fraternity of Guyana. 

That publication is clearly biased towards the AFC and this is not the conduct of a professional outfit, which they incorrectly seek to represent themselves as.

I wonder if, and this is a supposition that is unlikely to occur in the near future - should the AFC win the elections any time over the next ten years would the Stabroek news provide balanced and fair coverage of the party and the then government, or will they abandon their present heroes and jump on the next band wagon? It seems the party is one which is clearly the follower of every new fad in town. Initially they promoted everything the PNC/R did; now a new party is in town and they’ve taken up the position as the official Public Relations Arm.

The Alliance for Change came on the scene just before the 2006 elections with lofty promises and ideals that admittedly caught the attention of a number of individuals, hence their present occupation in the National Assembly of six seats.  They got there and they tried their best to heat up the scene that has been left somewhat cold since the PNC/R’s lagging opposition.   But all that has been evident in the Assembly for the past four years has been a loud, cantankerous and ineffectual floundering that came to a head last week with one of the two party leaders, Khemraj Ramjattan, jumping on his high horse and accusing the good workers of Parliament Building of tampering with official documents for which he had to offer up a humbling and sincere apology to the House days after an investigation was launched into the accusations, thus proving them unfounded.

This is just a sample of the ineffectiveness, the unprofessionalism and visionless new opposition party that is hopeful of leading the people of Guyana in 2011 and beyond.  The AFC came on the scene and most Guyanese assume that they would appeal more to the young people, much like how US President Barack Obama wowed the younger generation and the women in America, propelling them to change and winning by a massive landslide.  The AFC materialized, out of the bitterness of two ex-PPP and PNC members, and they threw a few words and catch phrases around that appealed to the few that refused to delve further into their rhetoric and try to uncover exactly what they stood for, how they intended to achieve the lofty promises they made and what plans or strategies they have to secure the future of our children and our children’s children.

But their true colours are now coming to the fore; they are revealed for the flounders and curmudgeons that they really are.

The PPP/C party under the stewardship of President Bharrat Jagdeo led Guyana to the stage it is at now; substantial debt has been written off, our forests will soon be earning money for the country, a modernisation of the country is in the works, more effort is being afforded to curb the criminality in the land and the future of young people in Guyana is not what it was 19/20 years ago; dim and disheartening.  There is more hope for the future, the landscape of Guyana is slowing and surely changing, the climate of change is here and Guyana is certainly not allowing itself to be left behind