Could the PNCR provide the evidence which legitimizes it as natural leader of the coalition?

Mar 20, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
In its report of 8 March, 2011, Demerarawaves has observed that Mr. David Granger supports the idea of a broad opposition coalition in principle. However, it becomes murky very quickly after this when he adds what I view as conditionality for a full commitment. The Brigadier, it seems, wants to know the conditions under which he would have to cede the presidential candidacy.
It would be easy to understand Mr. Granger’s comments if they had to do with his being asked to negotiate away his position as the President of Guyana if and after the PNCR won the upcoming election! However, that is not the context within which the Brigadier is alleged to have made his remarks. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that Mr. Granger is telling us that in addition to the commitment made by the PNCR to a coalition which he supports in principle, he (and the PNCR) also need to know under what conditions he and his party would be required to relinquish their position as the assumed presidential candidate of the still hypothetical Opposition Coalition! Am I correct to interpret this stance as one where Mr. Granger and the PNCR (not surprisingly) are saying that it is their natural right to lead and head the Coalition?
As far as I know, there have been no formal talks among the relevant stakeholders which can be said to have brought us to the point of structuring, much less deciding on the leadership of this new body.
If my interpretation is correct I wish to ask of Mr. Granger and the PNCR: Could you and the PNCR provide the Guyanese people with the evidence/information on any process which legitimizes your claim that you (and the PNCR) are the natural leader of the coalition? Additionally, you have said that the members of the party did not vote in the internal elections of the PNCR for a prime ministerial candidate, but for a presidential candidate.
You are correct in that respect, but that stance only has relevance and integrity when applied contextually to the internal politics of the PNCR, and that’s the way it should be.
However, the national coalition is a fundamentally different context and definitely one where Mr. Granger’s and the PNCR’s stance has no relevance, unless they want to reawaken the ghosts of the Sophia Declaration where Burnham introduced, articulated and imposed the doctrine of paramountcy of the PNC on the nation (which incidentally is now being practised by the PPP).
Hasn’t the PNCR learnt the lessons of our recent history or is it so imbued in its ways that the tiger that it is, finds it impossible to change its stripes. With an eminently respectable student of our history as its presidential candidate, the PNCR has the opportunity to truly show national leadership by going forward in the spirit of the heyday of its last President, the Honourable Hugh D. Hoyte.
The PNCR must depart from its socialised instincts, which it has started to courageously do, by initiating the process out of which the Brigadier has emerged as its presidential candidate. (And as we are on the subject, the PPP needs to do the same to come into and take its rightful place in the 21st. Century.)
If the PNCR is truly interested in an opposition coalition, and I trust that the party sees the good sense in this approach, it should proactively seek out all stakeholders and using all its experience, discuss, negotiate, coordinate, guide and eventually, they must all create the coalition, the only mechanism which stands a chance of kicking Jagdeo, his brigands and the PPP out of office.
And who knows, in doing so you may very well earn the ultimate reward (Leader of the Coalition) for your work of organising a progressive body that could bring victory at the next election for the mass of the people.
The days of assuming a natural position of ascendancy and dominance are over. There needs to be consultation with all of the people before assuming what you still seem to see as the role of the PNCR and its senior members as the naturally entitled leaders of the people of Guyana.
Hubert Wong
Tortola , BVI

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Could the PNCR provide the evidence which legitimizes it as natural leader of the coalition?

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