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The answers of Van West Charles

Apr 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Politics in Guyana will become even more curious, definitely tenser and naturally more enthralling when the son-in-law of the late President Forbes Burnham, Dr. Richard Van West Charles, returns home in a few days’ time. A PNC insider had whispered to me that Mr. Corbin favoured Dr. Charles.
I wrote that in a column on Corbin but the undercurrents in the PNC point to Dr. Aubrey Armstrong. We don’t know as yet what shape Dr. Charles’s politics will take or what architecture he will bring to the PNC if he secures the leadership. But two things we know will happen when the doctor returns.
He plans to ground with the Guyanese people (though I am not sure that Rodneyite term can be applied to Van West but we shall see) and secondly, as a spin off from that he will have to field question on the nature of his father-in-law’s rule. Those questions will follow Dr. Charles everywhere he goes. Here is where Guyana’s politics will become vastly more interesting than it is at present. What will be the answers of Dr. Charles? To get a glimpse into what is to come, we need to look at the perennial “apology dilemma” that has haunted the PNC since it became an opposition party and continues to be a ghost that shadows it.
But is the “apology syndrome” still the nemesis of the PNC after more than sixteen years of PPP governorship? In other words, has the PNC cast off this jumbie and has accepted that in comparison to Burnham’s seventeen years of power, the PPP has outdone him in the exercise of dirty power and nasty politics?
The times change quickly in a fast moving world. Today’s negatives are forgotten and overshadowed by the influx of even nastier values. Raphael Trotman earned national respect when in 2004 he advised the PNC leadership to apologise for the excesses when it was in power. I seriously doubt it. I am most certainly that such advocacy will not resonate in the society.
On the contrary, any politician, today, who is contending for power may lose credibility if he/she demands an apology from the PNC for bad government and not do likewise for the PPP.
I have spoken to many top PNC leaders, including Hamilton Green (though he is not in the PNC’s hierarchy), about the “apology dilemma” and it is no longer an issue. They are adamant about it. We have a reverse situation in Guyanese politics today in which most PNC leaders want the PPP to apologise to the nation over what they see as the worst form of undemocratic power a government has practised in Guyana’s history.
From speaking to these people, it is clear to me that the “apology complex” is a dead affair. Enter Van West Charles. Is he going to put back the “apology nuance” on the front-burner or it is a thing of the past for him?
It is difficult to see Charles going to African constituencies and talking to PNC groups and getting a warm reception when he is quoted in the press as saying that PNC executives and mandarins should show remorse over how Burnham governed Guyana. I cannot see Dr. Charles going that route. Not after the massive shadow of shame that hangs over the canopy of the PPP.
The question remains as to how Charles will design his responses. There will be “nuff” inquiries (some of which will come from this writer if I ever meet with Charles or attend his public lectures).
What we can anticipate is that Charles will not be short of research materials to adequately frame his answers to achieve plausibility. If Charles has done his homework, his credibility will remain intact when he enters the debate circuit. Three angles are common among PNC detractors. One is that Burnham was a dictator.
Charles will probably demand the instances. If given, will he offer parallel instances in the PPP Government? He should not be lost for facts in this area. “Paramountcy of the party doctrine” will be thrown at Charles.
One hopes that Charles is aware that in the recent announcement of three new Permanent Secretaries, one is the brother of a key PPP executive and the brother of a senior Minister only that the last name is different. So will Charles retort that there is still paramountcy and will he offer examples?
Thirdly, what expression will be on Charles’s face when told that the Burnham Government was corrupt? We anticipate that Charles will laugh and heartily so. Because he knows that when it comes to that turf, he will be invincible. Anyone will. Corruption is out of control.

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