THE FUTURE OF THE PNCR AND THE PPP

Apr 15, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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In life there are things that happen that have unintended consequences. Both of Guyana’s main political parties, the People’s National Congress Reform and the People’s Progressive Party are now facing unintended consequences because of two separate and independent developments, one in each camp.
In the case of the People’s National Congress Reform, we are now learning that Dr. Richard Van-West Charles, the son-in-law of the Founder Leader of the PNC, will be returning soon to Guyana and is likely to contest the next elections of his party. Will the PNCR reject the doctor or will his arrival be seen as an opportunity for the party to look way ahead into the future?
In the case of the PPP, we have just witnessed the death of Mrs. Janet Jagan at a time when the party seems unable to influence the direction that its own government is taking.
Mrs. Jagan’s death has had the effect of raising questions about the future of the PPP given that her passing brings to an end an era of politics and no doubt the end of the Jagan influence within the PPP.
These two developments, the passing of Mrs. Janet Jagan and the imminent return of Dr. Richard Van West Charles, come at a time when each party is conscious of the need to look ahead and to create structures and leadership for the future.
The PNCR has obviously seen the wisdom in doing more than just looking ahead. They have begun to plan ahead so as to create a party not just for the present but for the future.
The PNCR recently held a retreat where various matters would have been discussed and now with the news that Dr. Charles is returning and has plans to be politically involved, this aspect of building a party for the future is likely to take greater shape.
Within the PPP, the same idea seems to be dawning. Mrs. Jagan was an important cog in the organization of the party and someone will have to step forward to fill the many roles that she played, especially as it relates to the editorship of the Mirror and the Thunder and her guidance to the women’s arm of the party.
The party does have a General Secretary and many capable hands on deck but that General Secretary is also likely to become a possible Presidential candidate and if he succeeds then the party will have to look towards a new General Secretary, a critical position which cannot be filled overnight.
The PPP also needs a new image. For a long time, the Jagan image was stamped all over the PPP. The party now has to look beyond that image and to create a new brand for itself.
It needs, as all mass-based parties do, a face to project that new thrust, and this is where the PPP will have a serious problem because of its traditional embrace of collective leadership, which is without a maximum leader. This means that the PPP’s support base will look towards a group rather than an individual.
The experience of the Working People’s Alliance is telling in this regard. The WPA took this concept of collective leadership a bit too far and in the end it had no powerful or charismatic enough leader, something that has been a feature of post-colonial societies.
Both parties therefore are at the stage where they have to reorganize for the future. This reorganization will require a great many internal changes.
For one, we will probably not see the return of the concept of the maximum leader but it can also be predicted that neither will there be a full-fledged resort to the notion of collective leadership.
Both parties will have to address the image of their parties and foremost, the leaders they will elect to project this image.
Both parties have also suffered from ideological sterility. Since the deaths of both Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan, the PNCR and the PPP respectively have not defined themselves ideologically and this will continue to be a source of contention for their supporters, drawn principally from the working class, but who see the parties more aligned to the propertied classes.
Both parties will also have to develop modern forms of organization if they are to succeed. The PNCR, for example, will have to look as most parties in the opposition do, towards rebuilding existing structures and adapting these towards new forms of development to cater for the needs of the party in the future.
The party under Robert Corbin did try to have a Big Tent coalition, but this failed, and perhaps the lesson for the PNCR is that it may have to convert itself into a Big Tent party in order to secure the sort of broad-based alliance that is necessary to win an election.
To do this and at the same time to have a fixed ideological orientation is not going to be easy since one is for short term gain and the other is more long term.
The PPP has less of a problem in this area. The PPP is a sound political organization with extremely well-oiled organizational machines. The PPP has been doing its work over the years and now has a fairly discernable base of Afro-Guyanese and indigenous support.
Finally, both parties have to plan for leadership for the future. This involves not only developing the existing leaders but also have a nursery from which future leaders can be drawn. In this regard, both parties will have to work extremely hard to groom talent that is drawn from within the respective parties.

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