ROBERT CORBIN HAS BEEN VINDICATED

May 19, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Robert Herman Orlando Corbin must be smiling. Over the past year he has faced a volley of criticisms over his leadership styles and the strategies he has employed in confronting the government.
Pressure was mounting on him to engage in more confrontational politics. The main criticism was for him to take to the streets and return to the stratagems that would force the government to be more responsive to the demands of the opposition and the wider society. He was being pushed to restore the slow fyaah/mo fyaah campaign.
Robert Corbin proved to be far more astute and far more experienced than his critics gave him credit for. He has been around long enough to know the consequences of certain actions and he himself would have known how much his party suffered as a result of the confrontational politics of the PPP.
The PPP may have been humbled by the slow fyaah/mo fyaah campaign but they did not concede political power or political ground as a result of that form of militancy which reared its head after the controversial 1997 polls.
In fact, it was the PNCR and Desmond Hoyte which turned out to be the ultimate losers in those protests. The PPP conceded to reduce parts of its original term but eventually ended up serving almost an additional year before elections were held in 2001 and then capitalized on the fallout from the slow fyaah/mo fyaah campaign to seal victory in yet another re-run of elections.
Robert Corbin would have known that. He would have also witnessed the tremendous political pressures that were brought to bear on Desmond Hoyte over that period and how it hurt the party’s chances in 2001. But more importantly, as a seasoned political veteran, he would have observed how those protests and subsequent events in the country gave rise to political extremism which eventually caused the party to suffer more badly after 2001.
There are many impetuous elements within the PNCR who do not have the benefit and foresight of someone who has been involved in leadership at the highest levels of the party and within the government for more than twenty years. Yet all this experience is dismissed by those who feel that they know better and who even have the temerity to challenge the leadership.
Corbin understood that the greatest threat his party faced was the threat of the party adopting postures that would allow extremists to have a foothold within the party. He would have seen what these extremists did since 1997 and he would have known that what his party needed was not to concede turf to these extremists.
Unfortunately many who are sensible and reasonable individuals were pushing the PNCR into a position whereby it could become vulnerable to the influence of political extremism. These persons who were calling for the party to adopt a more aggressive stance did so out of frustration at the slow progress that was being made in bringing about meaningful change. They seem to forget that the greatest challenge before them is not to force the government to change but to create the conditions whereby the vast majority of people in Guyana would throw off the insecurities and fears that have allowed the PPP to consistently win election after election.
Many of those calling for political confrontation in the streets were responding to their base instinct. And they were doing so out of frustration, in part due to their own failures. They wanted Corbin and the PNCR to do what they could not themselves do.
Corbin never bothered to try to appease them. He never bothered to walk the tightrope since he saw Desmond Hoyte fall off that rope. Instead he continued to take positions that have now seen him achieve one of the greatest political victories as an opposition party in Guyana.  And the irony is that he was condemned for the very role.
But he has been vindicated and he has shown that being a smart opposition brings more results than being an aggressive opposition. He has shown that results can be achieved through forms of struggle that need not involve taking to the streets and trying to make the government look ridiculous.
The PNCR got together with the other opposition parties and devised a strategy to force an inquiry into ‘phantom squad’ operations. Corbin was assailed for his failure to force the government to have an independent investigation. In fact, this matter seemed to have died a natural death until this past week when with suddenness two important countries, Britain and Canada, both called for investigations into phantom killings.
When everyone thought that Corbin’s strategy was a failure, it has begun to show results, and serious manners are going to come the government’s way, because while for now it is only the UK and Canada that have spoken, it is only a matter of time before Uncle Sam jumps in. And when Uncle Sam jumps in, the chickens will come home to roost.

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