The PNC is desperately trying to survive

Oct 24, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It would not only be foolish, but repugnantly indecent for any informed, mature citizen anywhere in the world to deny the great and historic role in this country’s evolution of the People’s National Congress. As someone who practises revisionist history, I believe historical evidence exists to justify the PNC’s politics of the sixties that brought it to power in 1964.
When historians look back at the true nature of the Jagans and their organization and the people they nurtured in their party, but most of all the morally bankrupt and truly sickening nature of the PPP’s rule since the death of Cheddi Jagan, the people who embrace and support the PNC have nothing to be ashamed of.
This does not erase the historical record of PNC‘s authoritarianism.
It is foolish for Guyanese to sanctify Forbes Burnham. It is unwise to attempt to defend his abuse of power. How ironic life is.
The PPP is using Burnham’s “lovely, humane, democratic” 1980 Constitution to perpetuate its lust for power. You would think the last person to criticize Mr. Jagdeo’s use of the 1980 Constitution would be a PNC member.
Examine Mr. Burnham’s 1980 Constitution and you will see how fanatical he was about possessing power. The reality today is that the 1980 Constitution places unbelievable power in the hands of the Executive. The PNC must know by now, there is nothing in Burnham’s 1980 Constitution that can make President Ramotar accountable to Parliament if the Executive refuses to assent to a Bill. Forbes is long gone, but we are still victims of his ruthlessness.
Enter the post-1992 PNC. After seeing what was to come from the PPP Government, especially in the area of racial politics, Desmond Hoyte, decided that he was not going to live with that kind of PPP’s use of power.
He rightfully invoked the Hobbesian framework of the social contract. I used Hobbes instead of the other two great social contract philosophers, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, because Hobbes preferred strong absolutist government. But he was wise enough to argue that despite the enormity of authority that the ruler possesses, the ruler must be decent and respect his side of the social contract and that the subjects have a right to reject him once he didn’t keep his side of the covenant.
It was clear to Hoyte that the PPP was not going to abide by the social contract that to him was a Hobessian one.
From 1997, Hoyte and the PNC confronted the PPP Government achieving the remarkable victory of dissipating the fulcrums of Janet Jagan’s government.
Had the PNC not removed Mrs. Jagan, I think this country would have imploded beyond anything imaginable.
Mrs. Jagan was just big trouble waiting to happen. Of every single Guyanese politician, including pro-colonial personalities in the fifties, Mrs. Janet Jagan gave absolutely no recognition to traditional democratic values. Had she remained in power, she would have become a violent, communist tyrant.
Mr. Hoyte died suddenly and Mr. Corbin’s tenure almost wiped out the existence of the PNC. The PPP Government did not have to weaken the PNC.
They left that to Mr. Corbin. Sadly, the PNC lost an election it should have won in 2011.
It thought it had the numbers, but 100,000 registrants did not vote. If a substantial percentage of them did, APNU would have secured a parliamentary majority.
The loss of the 2011 election has left the PNC psychologically exhausted and spiritually defeated. Since November last year, the PNC has drifted from one embarrassment to another. No one can defend the PNC’s absence in the Linden electricity crisis to me.
I was on the ground in Linden in April from the time the electricity tariff hike was announced.
It was this columnist on July 1 who confronted officer Hicken when the first big rally was held.
Hicken came in a belligerent mood with his tear gas team while hundreds of babies and little children were among the demonstrators. Our confrontation was captured in a photograph in the Stabroek News the next day.
Where the PNC goes from here no one knows. After long periods of agitation from 1997 to 2001, the fight has gone out of the PNC.
The AFC is too small and young to take over from the PNC which means opposition supporters have to endure a long period of angst.
My humble opinion is that the PNC is beginning to fade. It will pin its hopes on another election, whether snap poll or the constitutional five-year election.
It will contest and lose. It may die a natural death, but Guyana cannot afford to lose the PNC.

Latest News

The PNC is desperately trying to survive

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Guyana boys team selected for 2025 PAHF Jr Challenge

Mainstay Goldstar FC receives NSC support ahead...

Lusignan Golf Club Announces the 2025 Ansa McAL...

Guyana U-20 Women’s squad arrives in Antigua...

GCB saddened at the passing of former GCB...

BCB strengthens Executive body as moves made to...

Features/Columnists

A flawed interpretation of international law

CARICOM Nations Should Respond Together To new U.S. Policies

Dissecting, dissembling, clearing up covering up

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The PNC is desperately trying to survive

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]