The PNC’s Standard Bearer

Feb 28, 2011 Editorial

Even the President’s men admit that Guyana has a “fragile democracy”. We are not surprised that they have attempted to lay all the blame for that “fragility” on the opposition camp – with which they have lumped the independent media. It takes courage and statesmanship to admit one’s fault in public affairs: it is for the government to decide how much of these qualities they wish to display. From where we stand, we see no man or institution, including ourselves, as perfect.
But we hope that all Guyanese, including the government, would concede that for our “fragile democracy” to become stronger so that it can better deal with the inevitable disagreements that characterise any agglomeration of humans, we need a viable opposition.
Even those that accept their inherent imperfectability, unfortunately tend to cast their opinions in categorical terms, when it comes to political affairs. These opinions, of course must be challenged; this is the job of the opposition. And in the clash of points of views between the several camps, the ordinary citizens are hopefully enlightened to the possibilities of alternate paths on given issues. In a nutshell: they are empowered to make democratic choices.
So we arrive at the just-concluded Special Delegates Congress of the PNC that announced their choice of Presidential candidate – Brigadier (retd) David Granger. In and of itself, the very process that the PNC chose to make their selection was, in our estimation, positive for the nurturing of our “fragile democracy”.
Was a time when both of our major political parties, born from the same political womb and enamored of the tenets and methodology of Marxism- Leninism, selected their candidates out of sight from the people they purportedly represented. The PNC’s move away from the cloistered ‘democratic centralism” model to an open primary contest, accepting greater inputs from their ordinary members, has to redound to the strengthening of our democratic culture.
Mr. Granger and his peers were forced to face their party’s constituency, both locally and abroad and so are not confronted with a “pig in a poke” candidate. Eventually, the process turned out to be a two man contest and Mr. Granger just managed to pip the veteran technocrat Mr. Carl Greenidge.
One pleasing development was that, from reports received, the process was free from the controversy and rancor that had dogged earlier contests. This too is positive for our “fragile democracy”. Less controversy at the party level about choosing leaders will hopefully spill over into the national contest coming up later this year.
Now that Mr. Granger has been chosen as the PNC’s presidential standard bearer, he knows that he will be subjected to the most searching scrutiny. Not least of all by this newspaper as a member of the media fraternity, bound by their obligation to inform the people. It is our hope however, that the examination, both by the media and the other political parties will be restricted within the bounds of propriety.
In the history of our political hustings, it is very unfortunate that our politicians have too often descended into scurrilous personal attacks rather than dealing with the issues of the day. Encouraged by studies that claim negative attacks catch the attention of voters most effectively, politicians love to “sling mud”. We hope that in the new era of acceptance from both sides of the political divide that our democracy is “fragile”, they will not pander to their baser instincts.
In another positive development for our democratic credentials, Mr. Granger announced immediately after his selection that he will be working to solidify previous coalition proposals with other members of the Joint Parliamentary Opposition. By their very nature, the logic of coalitions enforces accommodative behaviour: parties will not subsume their identities unless they are made comfortable on issues that are important to their constituencies.
This facility to look at issues through the eyes of others is crucial for democratic entrenchment. It was not made clear whether new overtures will be made to the AFC. We hope it will be. We repeat that a stronger opposition will lead to a stronger democracy.

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