Mr. Corbin’s New Year’s address lacked coherence and substance

Jan 17, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
The break of the New Year is expected to be an occasion for optimism. People make all sorts of idealistic resolutions with the hope that the New Year ‘Magic’ will make them all a reality.
Unfortunately, this New Year must have been the total opposite for PNCR members and supporters as they listened to Mr. Robert Corbin’s New Year’s address. His address was pedantic, pathetic and preposterous. It lacked coherence and substance and was indicative of a Party suffering from the loss of its intellectual corp.
As I listened to the address I sunk further and further into the conviction that Mr. Corbin is incompetent and ill-equipped to lead and under him there can be no effective opposition in Guyana at this juncture. I was alarmed by the amount of times Mr. Corbin brazenly pandered to the PPP. It was as if the New Year’s address was a free ticket to the PPP to do as they please in 2010.
I was not surprised when I read the full page advertisement placed by some members of the PNCR condemning Mr. Corbin’s New Year’s address. However, I viewed it as an opportunity for Mr. Corbin to correct himself and give some hope to PNCR supporters. Instead, Mr. Corbin demonstrated that he considers himself above accounting for his stewardship. He claimed to be too busy to clarify, for the benefit of PNCR supporters, the issues raised by 25 of his Party’s members. This is symptomatic of ominous latent tendencies.
As if this was not bad enough, Mr. Corbin, through General Secretary Oscar Clarke, attempted to shift blame to the members of the Central Executive of the PNCR. Instead of confronting his critics head-on, clarify the issues raised or accept responsibility for a palpably poor New Year’s address, he tries to place the albatross around the neck of the entire executive. This is the attitude of a man who places personal interest above the welfare of his Party. He is prepared to have the public believe that it is the entire executive which is pandering to the PPP and has abandon the core principles of the PNC as entrenched by Burnham, Reid and Hoyte. Such a man is not fit to lead.
More light was shed on the deception being perpetuated when I approached a member of the PNCR Central Executive to express disappointment about the executive’s role in this fiasco. I was informed that, contrary to Mr. Clarke’s claims, the Central Executive Committee of the PNCR did not sanction Mr. Corbin’s New Year’s address.
The executive member claimed that the executive was not privy to the contents of the speech before it was made. Instead, copies of the speech were circulated after the fact for educational purposes. Members of the executive were advised by the General Secretary to read the speech so as to bring themselves up to date.
I call upon Robert Corbin to stand up like a man and take responsibility for his handiwork. Do not behave like the cowardly school bully and try to cast blame elsewhere. I also call upon him to explain what is it that has him so busy that he cannot offer an explanation for supporters of the Party. I am seeing no evidence of Mr. Corbin’s supposed industry.
The PPP is doing as it pleases, the PNCR is falling apart and the Party has no organised political work across the country to ensure an effective “Claims and Objections” exercise that is currently ongoing.
I take this opportunity to salute the 25 PNCR members who took the unprecedented step by exposing Mr. Corbin. I also take this opportunity to wish the staff, members and supporters of the PNCR success in 2010. I do hope that God will allow you to free yourselves of the albatross around your necks so that you can go into the Local Government Elections and General Elections as a dynamic force.
Carl B. Williams

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