Is the PNC dead?

Dec 08, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

After the calamity that visited the PNC during the Alexander/Corbin split, it was generally felt that the PNC was facing national disappearance. It was not possible to decapitate the leadership of an organization and yet allow for a flourishing life.
The organizational capacity of the PNC has virtually halted with the alienation of the cream of its intellectual pyramid. Gone were names like Vincent Alexander, Stanley Ming, James Mc Allister, Sherwood Lowe, Hamley Case and Supriya Singh.
Those that remained were involved in guerrilla warfare with Mr. Corbin. The bleeding eventually claimed Aubrey Norton.
Some stalwarts remained, like Winston Murray who achieved the unique distinction of staying above the infighting. Enter phase 2. The consensus among PNC constituencies was that Mr. Corbin should step down for two reasons. One was that in world politics the zeitgeist is for a fresh, new face.
Around the globe political entities are looking for people who belonged to a newer generation. A caveat is in order. Even though this is the trend around the world, it certainly is not a fixed pattern. Many countries do have leaders that were there from the seventies and eighties.
Secondly, there were specific claims inside the PNC that Robert Corbin had lost energy, dynamism, strategic thinking but most of all innovative leadership. Contributing to this rising perception was the ugly rumour that two years ago, Mr. Corbin made a pact with Mr. Jagdeo that eschews any sustained PNC pressure on the PPP Government.
No one has been able to describe the contours of this covenant but the feeling persists onto this day that something went on between Mr. Corbin and President Jagdeo some time back.
Another caveat is in order. Even if there is some resentment for Mr. Corbin by PNC leaders and PNC enclaves throughout Guyana, it is not fair to blame Mr. Corbin for lack of activism. The entire society is in an apathetic and complacent mood. No one hears about the GHRA these days.
The TUC is moribund. The AFC has failed to live up to expectation. The GPSU has gone permanently quiet. Small groups like the WPA and GAP are not resourceful enough to have a national presence. When President Jagdeo told an audience that the new opposition in Guyana was the private media it was his Freudian acknowledgement that the opposition in totality was not active.
One can anticipate the alternative outline. It goes like this. Even though there is a devilish resignation in the Guyanese society, this should not prevent extensive activism by the PNC.
That activism, even without other organizations’ participation, could over a period of time produce results. Point taken!
By constantly banging away at the Government, the spark could have arrived. Historians say that at a dialectical moment in social movement, a spark can generate a social protest and that can lead to revolutionary upheaval.
One would like to think that this was on the agenda of Team Alexander if it had captured the leadership from Mr. Corbin.
Enter phase 3. This is the present moment in the PNC where things are not falling apart but have fallen apart. Murray’s funeral arrangement has further deepened the schism in the PNC. I was at the ACDA wake for Murray and both mild and undiplomatic criticisms were being leveled by the different factions against each other inside the PNC.
The MC for the night, ACDA’s Eric Philips, openly called on the PNC to stop the nonsense that is taking place among its ranks. Murray’s death has further driven in the nail in the coffin.
The PNC is not an elegant party at the moment. Far from it. How can you have a presidential candidate and Mr. Corbin remains at the head of the party? You are in effect voting for Mr. Corbin since as leader he will have the dominant say in the shape of things to come.
What is bizarre is why a party leader would not want to contest national elections? It is an absurdity that even Shakespeare would have been hard press to express in words. The final blow will be the congress to choose the presidential candidate.
There are heavy hearts inside the PNC that it will not be an honest process. If it turns out that the PNC presidential candidate was not elected by a free and fair system and the selection of delegates was done through manipulation, the PNC will not survive to contest the 2011 elections.
What this country may be witnessing is the slow death of the PNC which is about to come to its moment of finality.

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Is the PNC dead?

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