'Al' yu backside inside the stand'

                 I have been reading and listening to a lot of commentaries and opinions and advice about Guyana. These have been posted mainly on facebook and other parts of the Internet mainly by Guyanese living abroad. Ninety nine percent of these commentaries are levelled at the past and present PPP/C regimes and are exclusively negative in nature and extremely damming. One is bombarded by the vicious attacks on individuals and groups aligned to this party and the conditions in Guyana much of it with justification. Any observer reading the articles or listening to the speeches   would conclude that Guyana is the worse country in the world and that there is nothing good happening there.is this fact or propaganda? One would get the impression too, that the economic, social .political and moral tragedy that is Guyana have all been engineered by the PPP/C and its henchmen. Did the PNC do better after twenty six years in office??  'Kick them out. burn them at the stake, jail them and throw away the key, hang them do anything but get the PPP/C criminals out'. These suggestions reached a very high crescendo before the November elections and continued even after. True, the recent elections only partially succeeded in achieving some of the wishes but it seem to have made matters worse by giving the opposition a one seat majority in the House while leaving the PPP/C in control of the Presidency.
This 'opposition' now consists of three parties: the former PNC, the AFC and the WPA banded under a new name APNU. Why did the PNC (who ruled Guyana for twenty six years) want to hide under this umbrella. Are they ashamed of their identity or their  past. Wasn't it Burnham who referred to the WPA as the Worse Possible Alternative? His party (PNC) would have never formed an alliance with any of this bunch while he was alive. He must be turning in his grave!!
             Who can contend that the PNC ever 'won' a free and fair elections in Guyana. Don't you think that the PPP/C learned from the PNC as they sat on the sidelines observing all those years while ballot boxes were stuffed at the Army locations or disappeared and were switched in transit? While no one is condoning or supporting any type of electoral/political fraud or misdeeds, both parties and individuals within them) need to be condemned for the failures of the economy and socio- political structure in Guyana.
            A number of persons have been asking, why are you bringing up the past they  (the PPP/C are responsible now), but one does not have to bring up the past, just look around....   the past is all around in plain sight. Moses Nagamotoo was Information Minister in the PPP Government promoting  the same agenda he appears to be against but helped to create. Wasn't he the one who in 1998 advised the Indians to bide their time ,take their insults quietly and wait to exact vengeance on the Afro Guyanese who were 'raping and assaulting his Indian people'.  Oscar Clarke is a former Minister of Home Affairs who at one time threatened to call out the GDF on striking UG students. Robert Corbin (affectionately known as the enforcer) is still there, Hamilton Greene still persists and is running the City government. Carl Grenidge as Minister of Finance presided over the worse economy in Guyana' s history re: cassava bread/ rice flour/ banning/contra banning  of essential food items. If you criticize Jagdeo for his multi million dollar house (and he was President)  how come there is no mention of Grenidge's $28m dollar Porche (and he was the Finance Minister). Then of course David was the Military advisor to Forbes Burnham during the GDF intervention into the ballot boxes and  the atrocities in Berbice  and elsewhere. David is not a politician Burnham would describe him as 'not having the acumen concomitant with the rascality of high office'. Yes! who can forget the "Paramountcy of the Party Philosophy" where the Party forms and informs the Government.  The PPP/C did not create or promote  that power philosophy.
               Does one have to spell out the era of long and frequent blackouts, water shortages, forceful attendance at the  Developers' course, National Service, forced working at Belfield farm of the President, public servants cutting cane to break the strike, spraying of insecticide on wheaten flour bread at the markets and public servants who were taken off the airplanes or forced to escape through the 'backtrack' etc. These acts were not engineered by the PPP government. Sure there are people who are too young or not much older  than twenty six years to have known about any other government nor have any experience of these conditions. Some who know prefer to hide under amnesia or tend to brush the experiences aside.'A Nation (People) who forgets (ignores) the past is certainly doomed to repeat it.
Embrace these characters all you want but remember they all have some kind of 'skeletons' and none of them is 'clean'. Just as there are elements in the PPP/C who are and were involved in various questionable and unquestionable acts there are elements in the PNC/R or APNU who have engaged in similar acts as well.
the point here is that all are guilty all are involved all are consumed.

           What is needed is a completely new crop of 'competent folks' untouched by  philosophy and the 'mud' of the past
Secondly, Guyanese and others who are sitting safely outside (in the stand) should stop trying to influence the state of play from abroad. If you feel so strongly about the conditions  in the homeland go back show yourself, join the protests and the fight there. If you can't bat or bowl or field sit your behind in the stand and observe the game  as best as you can and let the participants decide the outcome. Let the democratic process be exploited to the fullest.