Guyana’s future is in the PNC’s hands

Jan 29, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A member of Team Alexander who is a colleague of mine at UG made a searchingly optimistic statement to the media two days ago. Andrew Hicks opined that either David Granger or Carl Greenidge should become the leader of the PNC. I agree. I would like to add more names.
Before so doing, a preamble to my selections is important. I am one of the most experienced Guyanese in observing and participating in Guyanese politics. There are quite a number of us around in the PNC, PPP, WPA, GHRA and in the trade union movement.
I am not ashamed to say that I have lived to see forms of state power under the PPP, in particular in the Jagdeo era, that are worse than under the rule of Forbes Burnham. I say this unapologetically. I say with unlimited unambiguousness, I have seen manifestations of monstrous corruption and horrible incompetence since the PPP came to power at the beginning of the nineties that the PNC Government under Forbes Burnham and Desmond would not have tolerated.
The PPP is using East Indians and has a blackmail stratagem hanging over their heads – “You want the PNC back? Remember the PNC was a terrible regime that will do what they did to you when they governed for 28 years.”
This madness the Indians have to exorcise from their minds. Guyana threw off the yoke of the PNC going into seventeen years now, yet look at the state of the world of the Guyanese Indians. Look at the tattered fabric of Guyana under the PPP. East Indians have to take the fantastic step that white and Hispanic Americans have done and wash away the Guyanese George Bushes and the Guyanese Republican Party that in Guyana appears in the form of the PPP.
It is not true to say that the PPP is all that better than the PNC under Forbes Burnham.
The factor in the equation in the 2006 general elections that will forever remain a mystery is what would have happened if Robert Corbin had stood down and Stanley Ming had rearranged the PNC to make it presentable to the electorate with the so-called Third Force as the other contestant.
My take on this is that the PPP would have lost the battle.
In 2011, the PPP will enter the poll as a badly damaged creature. Mr. Jagdeo has so demolished the face of the PPP that its disfigurement is beyond repair. Not Mr. Jagdeo alone. The Government of Guyana itself has been a poor performer.
In 2011, the PPP will be extremely vulnerable to an Obama-like challenge. It has not got any credible leader to galvanize and inspire Indians. Whoever wins the PPP’s presidential slot will end up in a vicious Catch-22. His critics will make mince meat of him for being part of Jagdeo’s excesses. Secondly, they will ask why when the excesses were taking place, that the candidate was silent.
The PPP is stuck in a minefield that even the most advanced technology cannot demobilise. If they bring in a new personality, the PPP faces the accusation of “been there, done that” meaning that they once secured a brand new name in 1999 and he turned out be a mini-dictator.
Come 2011, the PNC has its greatest chance of participating in the dethroning of the PPP. I use the word “participating” because I don’t believe the PNC will win the contest on its own. But if it goes into the battle with an Obama-like character and co-exists with a Third Force comprising the merger of the AFC, GAP, Peter Ramsaroop, Red Thread, Rupert Roopnarine, Moses Bhagwan, C.N. Sharma, and others, the PPP will lose both the Parliament and the presidency. It is all up to the PNC.
Enter Andrew Hicks. Hicks’s selections are commendable. David Granger is not a man with baggage. He is not a tainted personality. He is eligible to lead the PNC. Carl Greenidge’s name travels well. He is a learned economist. I would add figures like Winston Murray, Joe Singh and Stanley Ming.
My choice is Ming because he is neither African nor Indian and would be immune to suspicions. Joe Singh appears as a Guyanese who in the eyes of the nation has risen above race and its sordid spinoffs. Singh and Ming should seriously think about it.
My problem with Murray is that he is not above the charge that he lacks courage in leadership. I believe he does lack political valour. There is still time for him to show leadership qualities. All African-Guyanese and all PNC members/supporters better start thinking about a new PNC or else this country will have no future.

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