Paper forms and forms of conspiracies inside the PNC

May 19, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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PNC Parliamentarian, Aubrey Norton, said that he would not call Dr. Van West Charles a liar but that Dr Van West Charles “is a little bit distant from the truth.” One wonders if Mr. Norton himself may not be a little far away from the highway of truth.
Whatever happened between Dr Van West Charles and Norton over the request for membership forms has generated more conflict inside the PNC at a time when Mr. Jagdeo seems more inclined to travel outside of Guyana, to deepen his authoritarian games and endure scandal after scandal as Guyana slides deeper into economic misery.
Dr. Van West Charles’s story seems more credible when you listen to some of the words coming out of the mouth of Mr. Norton. According to Norton, it is the party groups and districts that apply for forms and that Dr. Charles went straight to the GYSM for forms. According to Norton, it is the GYSM membership that should be requesting forms. This attitude by Mr. Norton is unheard of before in any political party and trade union. I have never heard about a trade unionist or party member being refused a request for forms. I am the deputy head of a trade union and we welcome members to collect forms and share them out.
One would like to think that any political party should be glad that applications are being solicited since that it the purpose of the organisation – to get its members to distribute membership documents to the population. Perhaps, a wiser course is for all offices throughout the country of all political parties to have applications at the front desk so that visitors and cadres can pick them up.
The motto of political parties should be –”share out membership forms like you mad.”  I could understand a certain person taking the paper and wasting it. But unless the particular organisation knows this, then it should have no problem with the widespread giving out of applications.
Against this background, I find it difficult to see the reasoning behind Mr. Norton’s statement that it is the GYSM that should request the paper. What is wrong with a high-level cadre like Dr. Van West Charles going to Congress Place or any other PNC outlet and collecting the document? Isn’t that a normal routine?  Could it be that someone in the PNC is not interested in the augmentation of the PNC’s numbers? Or could there be subtle moves against Dr Van West Charles?
At the May Day rally, Dr. Van West Charles came up to me, and we had a chat. He let me know quite assertively that he expects that whatever challenges he makes inside the PNC, that party democracy would allow him to do that. He was assertive again by telling me that under no circumstances would he tolerate the right of party members to be circumscribed by undemocratic methods
Even before he may have dusted his shoes off since returning to Guyana, the doctor may have encountered the back-door conspiracies he feared when he spoke to me. Last week, Dr Van West Charles used strong words to describe obstacles being placed on a free electoral competition at the upcoming August congress of the PNC. Words used included “fraud.” One wonders why Dr. Van West Charles feels that he is more appreciated by the present leadership of the PNC than Vincent Alexander.
With due respect to Dr. Van West Charles,  Alexander came across as the quintessential PNC man yet look at the machinations that were invented to block Team Alexander’s challenge to Mr. Corbin.
There are two issues here that have to be emphasised. One is that Dr. Van West Charles is entitled to feel that he can become the leader of the PNC. Whatever one sees wrong with that, Dr Van West Charles, by his own interpretation, may believe that the PNC would welcome someone like him in preference to Mr. Corbin.
The second contention is that for the sake of the PNC, its huge electoral bulwark and Guyana as a whole, the PNC should allow Dr. Van West Charles his democratic right to challenge Mr. Corbin. It has not done that with Vincent Alexander. This columnist knows that fraud occurred at the last congress that was designed to keep Team Alexander out. One strong piece of evidence is the Werk-en-Rust membership whose numbers strangely jumped up fantastically.
Mr. Norton, Mr. Corbin, Dr. Armstrong and all the other seniors in the PNC hierarchy must know that in the just concluded conspiracy against Team Alexander and now in the nascent plot against Dr. Van West Charles, the PNC is courting disaster just one year away from a national election campaign.
If Dr. Van West Charles teams up with Team Alexander and continues to confront Corbin and company, the PNC will not survive to see the 2011 battle.

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