Is Corbin the phantom of the opera?

Apr 06, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Let us describe the meaning of this title before Mr. Corbin mistakes its context and its application and rushes to a misinformed judgement. In the novel, “Phantom of the Opera,” the force behind the success of the singer Christine, is that powerful figure that lives in the opera house.
He can make or break the opera house and its singer Christine. He makes his demand. He shapes the life of Christine. He is the source of ruin and is pleaded with to desist with his selfish ways. For the success of the show and Christine’s future, the phantom eventually relents and allows the show to go on and Christine to have her unconditional future.
I think the similarity is striking in that Corbin lives at the helm of the PNC (the opera house), decides who is the cast (the other leaders) and holds the PNC’s future in his hand (the singer, Christine).
If he doesn’t relent (since he wants to stay on as party leader), he destroys the opera house and its singer (in this case the PNC and Guyana). Should Mr. Corbin take interest in this story, I hope he listens to the songs from the musical and/of the movie sang especially by a powerfully endowed singer, Sarah Brightman. The title song is simply captivating.
Let’s transport the novel to the world of politics in Guyana. It has to be a messy or comical tale in which Mr. Corbin retains the leadership of the PNC while the PNC looks for an eligible presidential candidate. Mr. Corbin is quoted in the Wednesday edition of this newspaper as saying that he will decline the presidential slot so the PNC can find a personality suitable to both the PNC and the Guyanese people but he will retain the headship of his organization.
Mr. Corbin once told me at UG that if after thirty years in politics he cannot write an A grade paper in politics then what then did he learn from his vast experience. When next I see Corbin I will ask him that question given his pronouncement in this newspaper
Why a citizen of Guyana would undertake the role of presidential candidate of the PNC and accepts Mr. Corbin’s leadership when that fact alone, of looking for a presentable person, makes Mr. Corbin a non-starter for presidential politics?
If what is written in that edition of the KN is correct then Mr. Corbin becomes the phantom of the opera in the sense that he can destroy the performance if he stays on as leader pursuing his interests. Mr. Corbin has to ask himself two questions or the media should put those inquiries to him.
Why did he become a presidential liability? And secondly, why if voters accept his ineligibility, should they vote his party into power knowing that he is at the helm? In other words, can’t Mr. Corbin see that another face as the party’s nomination is a gargantuan indication that he has become a non-starter?
This is a contradiction that Mr. Corbin cannot dissolve at all. If the PNC has to secure a winnable character for the 2011 general elections other than Robert Corbin then Robert Corbin is a factor that is problematic. Why then should the PNC retain such an uncertain situation by having Mr. Corbin stay on?
On a different matter, Mr. Corbin is quoted in that edition of the KN as saying that the only reason why he was made the PNC’s point man for the 2006 elections was because there was a failure to secure a consensus candidate. Mr. Corbin did not elaborate. My understanding of the negotiations of the concerned organizations to identify a non-PNC face was because Mr. Corbin himself was part of the difficulties.
I don’t know if he would want to expand. But more importantly the other key players in that episode of 2006 should tell us what led to the breakdown.
So where do we go from here? Mr. Corbin will not be the PNC’s presidential candidate for 2011. Is this the start of a new beginning? How do we know that Mr. Corbin might not find an exigent reason for climbing down from his stated position? The evidence so far since Mr. Corbin became the PNC leader leads us to think that we should wait and see before we accept this finality from Mr. Corbin.
It is indeed a strange direction of Mr. Corbin – get someone to be a consensus candidate but I will still lead the PNC. Why not make a clean break Mr. Corbin and like Erik in the opera house, let Guyana have a future?

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Is Corbin the phantom of the opera?

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