Sunday, February 20, 2011

Fledgling AFC comes under the microscope, again

MORE questions have arisen about the sources of financing for the small Alliance For Change (AFC) party.
Political observers yesterday noted that AFC’s overseas-based supporter, Mr. Sasenarine Singh, who has emerged as a key spokesman for the party, may have inadvertently stirred up the proverbial hornet’s nest with his letter in the Monday February 14 edition of the Kaieteur News. In that letter, Singh, a former staunch member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and an avid campaigner in the 2006 elections, is quoted as saying: “Thank you, Malcolm Harripaul, and all the hundreds of others who donated tens of thousands of US dollars to the AFC in Queens, New York on Friday night (11-2-2011).”
But in another missive in the letters column of the said newspaper of the same day, Mr. Harripaul is quoted as saying: “While it is true that I have many friends in the AFC, including its presidential candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan, I am not a member, nor supporter of the AFC. I never expressed support for the AFC. However, I do wish them well.”
Observers are saying that while the AFC, formed just about five years ago, has consistently denied receiving funds from dubious sources, the questions have remained, and the party does seem to have a sizeable war chest, judging from the full-page advertisements it has placed in local and overseas newspapers attacking the Government and public officials here, and its spending on other programmes.
As one observer remarked, the AFC would have to come clean on its sources of funding, especially since it is quick to accuse the Guyana Government and public officials of corruption without backing these allegations with tangible evidence or an iota of proof.
“Mr. Harripaul has denied Mr. Singh’s claim that he is an AFC supporter, and Mr. Singh may now want to provide the names of others who have helped donate `tens of thousands of US dollars’ to his party,” he said.
One may well recall that no less a personage than the President has had occasion to accuse the AFC with accessing operational and elections funding from nefarious and highly-questionable sources.
A gentleman who has been incarcerated on drug charges is alleged to have provided funding for the AFC in the initial stages of that Party’s establishment. Despite its denials, the massive funding necessary to pay its high-priced American PRO consultant, Dick Morris, who wrongly (sic!) prognosticated victory at the polls for that party, as well as the related expenses for an elections campaign, had to originate from somewhere.
But where was the source? The AFC needs to come clean. Did its funding then come from the now-incarcerated drug baron? If Malcom Harripaul is denying the reported contribution that he and others made, to the tune of tens of thousands of US dollars to the fledgling party for its ongoing operational budget, which includes paying staff, utility bills, etc, then where did AFC spokesperson, Saisenarine Singh, get his information on Harripaul’s involvement from?
If indeed Saisenarine Singh -- who once fancied becoming Finance Minister in the Jagdeo administration, but has since become embittered because he was passed over in favour of Dr Ashni Singh -- is misrepresenting the facts in this instance, when he is writing on behalf of his party, the AFC, then how is anyone to believe his other contentions when he is attacking the People’s Progressive Party, as he consistently does? This issue has placed both his and Malcolm Harripaul’s credibility on the line. Who is telling the truth and who is lying?
Even well-established parties like the PPP and the PNC had severe budgetary constraints during their respective elections campaigns, yet the fledgling AFC was able to afford the phenomenal costs to hire Dick Morris, as well as the immense costs involved in mounting an elections campaign and sustaining a political party. So where is the AFC funding coming from? This party calls on everyone else to be accountable, except its own leaders, who have been publicly accused of fraudulent actions that contributed to loss of property by one Prakash Persaud, brother of Justice Prem Persaud.
If their funding has come, from the inception, from legitimate sources then why are they reluctant to divulge these sources? An investigation needs to be mounted on all the allegations of drug and other questionable linkages that are purportedly, especially in the past, funding the fledgling AFC.

5 comments:

  1. The AFC is no good news. They would sell Guyana to the dogs and won't think twice. They are all about themselves within the party and the most recent strategy for them is poisoning one another... Hehe... They are nothing but corruption and chaos and Guyana has not the time for their folly and death sentence to freedom and progress!

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  2. Will the Financing must be question since the people that they claim that support them says other wise.

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  3. The talking about how they have shadow pensioners and this is misleading information.But look at some truth the AFC have shadow Financier.

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  4. The people that supported the AFC with tens of thousands US dollars are the drug barons that back the party finances.

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  5. The AFC was caught blatantly lying about the people who support them financially.Guess this is the start of more problems within the party.

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