The PNC at 60: Collapse of the triumvirate

Oct 09, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Today’s article concludes the three-part series on the 60th birthday of the People’s National Congress. The first part looked at Burnham, the second at Hoyte and now we examine the leadership of Corbin and Granger. They say in life, perception is everything.
The perception PNC leaders had of Hamilton Green was that he was not the kind they wanted to lead them. They didn’t doubt his undying love for the PNC (perhaps next to Burnham he is the most loyal PNCite ever) but the perception of him was he fitted the strongman role best. Green loved Burnham wildly, but it was Burnham that elevated Hoyte over Green in 1984 when he made him the PM.
Robert Corbin found himself in an identical position to Green when Hoyte died. Some of the top intellectuals in the party who rose through the ranks of the YSM like Corbin and who were contemporaries with Corbin did not see him as leadership material. Four of the leading intellectuals in the PNC found it difficult to work with Corbin. Vincent Alexander challenged Corbin for the leader’s post; James McAllister was removed; Aubrey Norton ended up in a court battle with Corbin; Winston Murray chose to be silent but he was no admirer of Corbin.
It was perhaps the lowest moment of the PNC in its entire history. Under Corbin, a traditional pillar of the PNC – the Guyana Labour Union came under the control of a PPP underling and took the union out of the orbit of the PNC. The Public Service Union became alienated from the PNC under Corbin and in the 2006 elections, the PNC lost five seats from the numbers it had in the previous general election. During this time, there was a rumour spreading throughout Guyana that Corbin and Jagdeo were into power-sharing talks. Both men today remain silent. The other rumour is that both men faced objections but more so from the PPP side.
Faced with the loss of credibility and popularity, Corbin set about resuscitating the biology and physiology of the PNC and he did it. He has now laid down a niche in the PNC for which he will always be remembered.
First he reached out to all parties to form a rainbow coalition. He accepted he couldn’t lead it. In this venture, Rupert Roopnaraine became the chief cook and bottle-washer. Corbin was quite happy to play second fiddle to Roopnaraine. At this time, Corbin’s main goal was to use whatever configuration and permutation available to him to restore the anatomy of the PNC. The AFC scuttled the rainbow coalition and the WPA has gone on record as blaming the AFC for that.
Corbin and Roopnaraine then went to work. The rest is history. We now have APNU which won the 2015 election in a unity bandwagon with the AFC. But long before the 2015 poll, things became mysterious and opaque. Unless Corbin explains it in his memoirs which he told me is nearing completion then, we will never know.
In forming APNU with Roopnaraine, Corbin and Roopnaraine were the main plotters of the election strategy for the 2011 election. But Corbin was also into another plot that Roopnaraine did not know about and which Corbin felt didn’t concern the other constituents of APNU; that is the leadership of the PNC.
It would appear that in his decision to step down, Corbin favoured a brand new face to lead the PNC – David Granger. Many, including the late Faith Harding, believed that Corbin facilitated Granger. When Granger became leader, Clarissa Rhiel publicly said she doesn’t know him, he was never a PNC. She told me this, too, at the High Court gate on South Road.
The APNU triumvirate of Corbin, Roopnaraine and Granger dominated the 2011 campaign bandwagon. The PNC got back its lost five seats. The mystery is did Corbin willfully outmanoeuvre Roopnaraine, knowing that he was rooting for Granger? Corbin was leaving and the main plank on APNU will now be Granger.
Or did Corbin feel that even though there was a PNC inside of APNU, it would be APNU as a separate entity that would shape the direction of the PNC?
The PNC asserted itself after the 2015 victory and the triumvirate of Corbin, Roopnaraine and Granger collapsed. David Granger leads the PNC, APNU and the Government of Guyana. The main loser in this game is Roopnaraine. Corbin is gone, so Roopnaraine has lost his clout in the PNC.
Space has run out, but while Corbin is an admirer of Burnham, Granger is a Burnhamite ideologue. Corbin is fond of the WPA, not Granger at all. We are seeing the difference vividly now.

1 thoughts on “The PNC at 60: Collapse of the triumvirate”

Juan Allicock October 9, 2017 at 7:31 am

Freddie . Lunacy beckon’s ,ominous and obscure,carnivorous and monstrous .Hideous and slithering dead to the eyes but ever dreaming
Behind the stars at high beneath the stirring sea
arise and claim your throne of lunacy.