Dear Editor,
In Guyana, there was and is Azruddin Mohamed, MP. In New York City, there is now Zohran Madani, hizzoner-elect. Two Muslims striking a chord with disillusioned, disgusted voters. In America, there was a total of three Muslims who represented a low wave of candidates that rose high, embodied a message to the Establishment. Get going. It is an addendum to the new voter vocabulary.
At its core, the new voter vocabulary only has a couple of words. In and out. To keep the unhappy quiet, I revise that to for and against. Whoever didn’t listen before, had better sit up, take notice now. When things are taken to excess, there’s usually voter backlash. It happened in Guyana, didn’t it? Who would have believed that, when the lock that the PPP and PNC has on Guyanese voters is weighed, shaken up, shaken out, and then reweighed? I, for one, didn’t. But there was the Hon. Azruddin Mohamed, MP and 15 of his colleagues glinting in the lights of Guyana’s temporary parliamentary hall, the Arthur Chung Convention Center.
To be frank, I have some difficulty with both Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Mamdani. Whatever my position, the voters didn’t care about it. Here, it was said that Mohamed is a Venezuelan puppet, and look where he is today. In the U.S., a whole regiment of folks insisted that candidate Mamdani is a socialist, then a communist; those are witching words in America. Call a man a communist, and it is the kiss of goodbye. People from the Republican and Democratic Establish-ments called him all kinds of other names, but the voters from the five boroughs decided who was going in and who had to get going. It is called the power of the people, and that isn’t any 1960s hippie or Black Power chant. It is real, and it has much meat and muscle.
In Guyana, the PNC of local political eternity mainly felt the brunt of voter abstention and rejection, which served to catapult the We Invest in Nationhood big chief into the national hierarchy. Take the voter for granted for too long and before long a change is gonna come. There is Mr. Azruddin Mohamed now proudly wearing heavy titles that are out of reach of the greatest number of Guyanese. He is for real, and the PPP dodged a container truck. Its people stayed home, which is part of the poisoned soil that the ruling party sowed. It is known as fear. People that have a problem with how they are being cheated of their slice of the globally applauded local economy were fearful of coming out and casting an X against the WIN’s man name. Fear of the PPP machinery finding out. Fear of the consequences of daring to abandon the party, and standing for a rank outsider, joker, and pretender (according to the Big Kahunas in the PPP) would, could, make that voter a target for the wrath of the local emperors. So, they stayed home and sat on their fannies. Voter rejection via another form of passive expression.
Five years from today might look like a long way off to lots of thoughtful folks. It is also as close as tomorrow, which is why the PPP Gov’t is so desperate to get the newest MP out of here. The plan was first to make the WIN man into a lowlife, and then to transform him into a loser. Who are the real lowlifes and real losers now, and running for cover? Imagine that! A margin as comfortable as a goose-stuffed luxury bed, and the bigshots in the PPP getting back pain and belly pain.
Due to the belief that he has plenty of skeletons stockpiled, or roaming around, in his head, that is why the Yankees have such an interest in wrapping their arms around him. He is a walking goldmine; 24-carat political gems. Mr. Mohamed may have his secrets, but Mamdani has figured out the secret of overthrowing the entrenched interests. Did they throw the toilet bowl at him with force and zest! And did he rise above all of that, with a wide margin to spare! Here is a clue at the agitation that this man Mohamed is causing. This week should have been part of his coronation: the new Leader of the Opposition.
The forces arrayed against him, ensured that that did not happen. Rather than coronation and Opposition Leader, the ruling party’s vocabulary has been limited to extradition. Why the haste? What type of relationship is there to hide? What was (maybe still is) the degree of criminal involvement between one-time buddy, now adversary? Guyanese gave a hint that they’re tired of such contradictions, with 2030 looming large. The same thing happened in NYC.