HOW THE PPP WON THE CONGRESS OF THE PNCR

Sep 04, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) scored an overwhelming victory at the just concluded Congress of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
While the leader of the PNCR retained his position in an electoral process that still remains clouded in controversy, there is no obfuscation about who has come out the largest victor in the entire process.
The PPP got who they wanted as leader and also saw the Congress marred by so much controversy that they have come out as the real winners.
The PPP remains comfortable with Robert Corbin, so much so that even the President of Guyana did the unprecedented thing in extending congratulations to his counterpart after the elections.
The PNCR is now weaker as a political party as a result of the controversies. And as a consequence the PPP remains stronger and sure that it will secure another convincing win in the 2011 elections, regardless of who is the PPP presidential candidate.
The PNCR was forced to dig deep into the past to come up with representatives for its Central Executive and while there is nothing inherently retrogressive about the old guard returning, the results of the elections of the party must be viewed in the context of the deep divisions and suspicions that have been triggered by the controversial congress.
The delegates of the PNCR had an opportunity to make history, to break with the past and rejuvenate the party.
In Winston Murray, they had the opportunity for an epiphany for the party, a chance to show the Guyanese people that the PNCR is capable of placing an East Indian at the helm of the party.
Regardless of the controversies surrounding the delegates list and aspects of voting and registration, the margin of defeat that Murray suffered says that the PNCR was not ready for the sort of internal changes that would have allowed it to catch the PPP flatfooted.
The old allegiances rose to the fore and Murray was banished to the political wilderness.
Immediately after the elections, the spin doctors went to work to obfuscate the fact that the delegates turned their backs on an opportunity to put a capable Indian leader at the helm of the party.
They had a chance to make history, to do what the Americans did during the last Presidential elections.
Given the strident criticisms that were being leveled against the party leader, it seemed hardly likely that a serious contender could be defeated in free and fair polls.
In the end, the freeness and fairness of the polls did not matter. The delegates voted for Corbin. The choice that was made was clear as crystal. Even those persons who were accusing the PNCR of lacking leadership and being listless as an opposition could know the damage that was done.
In order to obfuscate the shame, we suddenly were lectured about the shortcomings of the Murray ticket; we were told that the incumbent worked harder.
The truth however is that the re-election of the leader of the PNCR was not about working harder. It was about the delegates voting against change. And we need not ask why they voted that way.
It is not the first time that Winston Murray has been bypassed. During the leadership of Desmond Hoyte, Winston Murray was the Chairman of the party and the logical choice to succeed Hoyte when he retired. Hoyte, however, paved the way for the replacement of Murray as Chairperson.
What happened to Winston Murray within the PNCR at the last Congress was a case of history repeating itself rather than history being made.
It was the second time that he was bypassed for leader and this time it probably has cost him his political future within that party.
The PPP on the other hand are licking their lips. They wanted Corbin to win because they feel they can whip him easily in any elections. Given the schisms that have enveloped the PNCR they must feel extremely comfortable of an overwhelming victory in 2011.
It will take some time for the PNCR to rebuild after this Congress. The PNCR is still a formidable political force, but the fallout from this just concluded Congress is too damaging to allow that party to pose a credible challenge to the PPP in the next elections.
The PPP has not been complacent. The PPP has been making serious inroads into the traditional support base of the PNCR and can now boast of a sizeable African-Guyanese support base. It has, for example, broken into the PNCR’s traditional stranglehold in Wismar and it also has a flourishing Alberttown/ Queenstown group in the city which is pulling away middle-class PNCR supporters.
During last week’s picketing exercise in front of Congress Place, a PNCR supporter came out and boasted that he “runs things” in Albouystown.
He too may be surprised, come 2011, when the PPP sweeps that ward which has always in the past voted solidly for the PNCR.

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