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The urgency for leadership change

Jul 10, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
There comes a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune…Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
There is a tide in the political affairs of Guyana that taken at its flood now, will lead to the defeat of the insidious, corrupt, incompetent PPP and its Government in the next General Elections and the good fortune of the opposition.
The majority of the electorate in Guyana are now fed up and disgusted with decline that has taken place in Guyana in the 18 years of PPP governance.
Unemployment is high and continues to rise. The high cost of living drives the unemployed and hungry to crime. Murders, robberies with violence, rape and other criminalities are Roraiman. Fear stalks the land. Poverty has expanded. Corruption, bribery, nepotism, racism, drug trafficking and immoral acts circumscribe life.
It is high time for change from the El Ghetto life created by the PPP and its Government to the El Dorado we once knew.
The masses are not only fed up with the governance of the PPP but are also turned off from the major opposition party, the PNCR. So also are members and supporters of the PNCR. It is not that they harbour ill feelings for the Party. They are opposed to Robert Corbin as Leader.
His leadership style is unpleasing both within the Party itself and to a larger extent within the country as a whole. There is a dark and growing darker cloud that has enveloped his Leadership.
Mr. Corbin has a negative and unpopular image as a Leader that has cast a shroud over the once formidable Party. As the PNCR Leader, he is also a disgraced losing Leader.
In the 2006, as PNCR Leader, he led the Party to a humiliating defeat and a loss of six Parliamentary seats.
Any other Party Leader would have resigned. In the belief that the Party belongs to him for the years he dedicated to it, he did not. The six seats lost went to the newly formed AFC.
In the post 2006 period, as Corbin’s leadership image continued its downward plunge, so too has the image of the PNCR. According to the CADRES Public Opinion Survey, PNCR support continues to fall. The PNCR under Corbin will lose more support, votes and seats in the next election.
And while the PNCR and the PPP are losing political support, the AFC is attracting those dropouts in large numbers.
The Guyanese people want change. The Guyanese people deserve change. They have suffered for too long. The majority are willing to support the opposition parties in the next election.
But they will not support the PNCR if Corbin remains its Leader.
If Corbin seriously wants the PNCR’s fortunes in the next election to change, if he sincerely and genuinely wants an end to the suffering of the people, then he must step aside. The pride and arrogance of one person should not trump the fortunes and future of the Party and the country.
With elections not too distant, in the interest of the Party and the people of Guyana, Mr. Corbin should call a Special Congress of the Party, announce he is stepping aside and hold elections for a new Leader and a new Central Executive Committee.
There is a lesson for him to learn from the recent political events in nearby Trinidad. Had Kamla Persad-Bissessar not taken over the leadership of the UNC from Basdeo Panday, it is doubtful that the Peoples Partnership Coalition would have won a landslide victory. The lesson is also about the fortunes of a coalition, partnership or alliance of all opposition parties, civic groups and the labour movement united in a common endeavour. That possibility cannot and will not happen with Corbin as Leader of the PNCR.
Come on Mr. Robert Corbin. Put your Party, the PNCR, the people and the country, before your personal pride and self-interest and step aside as Leader. You have given yeoman service to the Party. Your service has been recognised. The time to step aside is now. If you do, it is almost certain that the PPP will lose the next election. If you do not, the tide in the political affairs in Guyana today will ebb and so too will the fortunes of the PNCR.
James Reese

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