PNC has unwisely moved away from its core ideals

Sep 14, 2014 News

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– Dr. Faith Harding

By Leon Suseran

Former Executive Member of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Dr. Faith Harding opines that the party has unwisely moved away from the core ideals of Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte.

Dr. Harding stated that unless the current PNC leadership – at present allied with the coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) – dramatically changes its approach, “or they revert to the underlying principles of the People’s National Congress that I grew up with, and that I served under, I will never be joining them again.”
During the run-up to the 2011 Elections in Guyana, Dr. Harding and others claimed that there was an unjust process that concluded with Retired Brigadier David Granger being declared the PNC’s Presidential Candidate. And it was not too long after that Dr. Harding, along with several other prominent functionaries, effectively parted ways with the party.
Dr. Harding reflected on why she jumped off the PNC Bandwagon.
“When I joined the PNC and became very active, it was a party that worked for the people— that gave to the people— I saw free education, that made me rush home to Guyana, while I was doing my studies, because every educator in the 1970s dreamed of their nation providing free universal education for its people, and my country was the first!”
She noted how excited she was after completing her Doctoral Degree to come back home to become involved in the education system as a curriculum designer, with models of hers that had been used in numerous Caribbean nations.
“And that’s what I saw the PNC as— caring, wanting to provide for their people; I saw young people being given equipment; land, to be able to develop their skills as well as to see agriculture as the development tool, not only for their personal gain, but for their nation’s gain.”
She saw going to the interior and getting the resources of the country developed, “as a goal and objective of the PNC.”
“People got educated; women were driving heavy- duty equipment…I never saw that in any other developing country, where all these young women in the ‘70s were trained to drive tractors!”
“The women’s arm of the PNC trained numerous women in those days, so that they could go on the farms and into the interior—and you saw women becoming electricians, climbing utility poles to set up lights in communities— engineers—women. We had the first two women in our army flying planes and becoming pilots. Women moved from nursing into higher levels of medicine, and numerous females were being sent abroad to study.”
She recalled the PNC government sending persons from Guyana to war- torn nations, to make a positive impact.
“They went to train the Zambians; to train people in Tanzania, how to run their country, from a public service point of view. I admired all those things in the then PNC administration, but it has changed a lot from the days of Mr. Burnham and Mr. Hoyte, and that change came about in a way that I was certainly not prepared to tolerate.”
ABANDONED THE PEOPLE
Dr. Harding said that she does not approve of the manner in which the current leaders operate.
“I made it very clear on the platform that they had abandoned the people in the communities; that there were no new ideas; they did not want to move from where they were, to make things more developmentally enriched. I was very vocal to the leadership back then about those concerns, but of course, they did not listen.”
“The party hierarchy never appreciated my ideas or my comments, or the way I viewed the party, and so I came under attack.” The elections held for the Presidential Candidate, she opined, were “totally rigged.”
“And therefore, I felt that I didn’t want to be a part of that system anymore. I discussed it with the Central Executive, and the people made all kinds of excuses that I wasn’t prepared to accept. I saw no change taking place, so I decided to leave. Too much was at risk for who I am, and for the nation of Guyana.”
When asked whether she has ever thought about crossing over to another political party, Dr. Harding, while saying, ‘no’, stated that it would only come to her mind, “in the sense that I want to work with people…I want government to give me access— to give the people access— and I have a lot of difficulty getting that access, because I do not know if people see me as a threat or they don’t understand me, but it’s not something for me that I want— I want to see our nation develop.”
“I am very worried about our young people, “their future, their goals, their understanding of who they are as Guyanese citizens and how their contributions can help to develop our nation. Everything is so difficult to get done sometimes, I wonder why I insist on getting it done— to get women financed to do a project, is a headache. That is not an encouraging sign.”

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