PNCR 17th Biennial Congress gets underway…55 year-old Party charts renewed course for Govt. of National Unity

Jul 28, 2012 News

---

By Gary Eleazar

The People’s National Congress Reform yesterday opened its 17th Biennial Congress at its Headquarters Congress Place. The highlight of this year’s Congress is expected to be the race for party leadership.
Brigadier (rtd) David Granger’s challenge for the post of leader of the party is not a foregone conclusion.
Chairman of the party, Bishwaishwar ‘Cammie’ Ramsaroop whose post is also being contested was greeted with a resounding applause as he welcomed the delegates, Members of Parliament and special invitees to the opening and delivered the charge.
He immediately reminded those gathered of the events in Linden on July 18 and said that it is a sad irony that the event took place on the birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela.

The Chairman used the opportunity to thank and single out Robert Corbin who closes his reign as leader of the party.
He was adamant that the party is at a historical crossroad and urged that the PNCR is the only hope for Guyana seeing a Government of National Unity. “The “People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPP/C) days are numbered…We cannot relent now.”
The Party Chairman impressed on delegates that following the November 2011 elections the PPP has become even more “intransigent.”
“The PPP/C is now like a wounded animal; a wounded animal is most dangerous because it is staring death in the face.”
The Party Chairman made special mention of what he called skullduggery at the Guyana Elections Commission and reminded that the commission was prepared to make the final announcement minus 10,000 votes counted for APNU.
He said that there is none that can “deny we witnessed a new incarnation of the PNCR at the last election…we were deceived by machinations and skullduggery of the Commission.”
Ramsaroop was adamant that the Commission as constituted, has got to go.”
He did take a swipe at the membership of the party reminding that at the last election thousands of PNCR members didn’t register to vote and on Election Day sections of the support base “didn’t turn out to the polls.”
“We can’t win like that,” slammed Ramsaroop. He reminded that the ground work in preparation for the elections has to be completed and, “We have to show the PPP/C that change has come.”
Kabaka’s Lieutenant
This is Robert Corbin’s final PNCR’s Congress as Leader of the Party and following the pleasantries, gifts and words of praise, he said farewell as leader. He will tomorrow contest a post on the Party’s Central Executive Committee.
Introduced as one of the Kabaka’s (Linden Forbes Sampson) most trusted Lieutenants, Corbin delivered his final address to the PNCR as Leader in what was clearly an emotional goodbye.
He warned the congress to be aware of the “wild men in our midst.”

Corbin expressed appreciation for all who attended the congress. He said that they were truly representative of the 10 regions of the country.
He was in particularly high in praise for those delegates who had travelled from the now troubled mining town
“We are validating the struggle of our forebears,” said Corbin even as he asked that the Congress “pay homage to those whose shoulders we stand upon.”
Corbin used the opportunity to single out for special mention slain persons such as “Donna Mc Kinnon, Donna Herod, Ronald Waddell and more recently, the Linden Martyrs.”
“Let us redouble our efforts so that their sacrifice will not be in vain.”
Corbin said that the timing of the 17th Biennial Congress is historic in that for the first time it is being held in an atmosphere where the National Assembly cannot be controlled by Freedom House or Office of the President.
He impressed on the Congress that despite the fact that the partnership did not secure the Executive the objectives of the APNU remain within grasp and urged that the delegates seriously address this issue.
Oscar Clarke, the Party’s General Secretary in his message to the delegates at yesterday’s opening ceremony said that “by any objective account this was a period of great challenges for our party.”
He pointed to the litany of consecutive defeats at the hands of the People’s Progressive Party Civic from 1992 to 2006.
The PNCR did not contest the 2011 Regional and General Election as a singular entity given that it opted to partner under A Partnership for National Unity.
Clarke also lamented the political infighting which began after the 1992 election, which according to the General Secretary “only intensified” after the death of Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
He credits Robert Corbin as the person who saved the party from complete destruction.
“A United   PNCR: Securing our future through a government of National Unity,” is the theme chosen for the 55 year-old PNCR’s17th Biennial Congress.
According to Clarke, the theme “acknowledges the fact that our future as a party and country would be secure only when we are convinced, and can therefore convince others for a Government of National Unity.
Notable among the awards, plaques and recognition was that of the party’s longest serving and one of the oldest members, Cecil Cunha, who even serenaded the Congress with a Sound of Music rendition on his harmonica.

---

---