Aubrey Norton now has a chance to avoid history’s recurrences

Nov 01, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It was not given news coverage but it should have been. Aubrey Norton has returned to the leadership of the PNC. He actually polled large numbers at the August congress. It has been more than five years since Norton was ousted from the PNC’s executive committee because of his conflict with then leader, Robert Corbin.

Norton, unlike Vincent Alexander (I regard both as quintessential PNC biologists; they grew up in the PNC), has not stayed away after confrontations with the party leader. First it was Norton versus Hoyte, then Norton versus Corbin. But in the throes of torrid fights, Norton maintained his PNC presence. Not so with Alexander.

After Team Alexander challenged Corbin for leadership, and Alexander (sadly and most unfortunately) was conspired against, Alexander (sadly and most unfortunately again) left the PNC. If the PNC is ever going to reclaim intellectual and political credibility, it needs to reintegrate Alexander. I regard my Wortmanville compatriot as one of the finest politicians Guyana has produced.

One of the admirable qualities of Norton is that he is essentially of a working class ideology. Not much of such species is left in Guyanese politics. Working class heroes are gone from party politics in this country. The remnants of the WPA have atrophied, and terribly so. The PNC is overrun by neo-liberal opportunists. The AFC is the second purest middle class elitist outfit politics produced since The United Force of the sixties. Ironically, the PPP still has a few working class boys and girls left. That is one of the great dimensions of the PPP’s history.

I was buying bananas at the famous fruits caravan at Church and East Streets when my phone rang. It was Aubrey. He was responding to my column on the court’s decision in favour of the unilateral appointment of the GECOM chair by the president. Aubrey said that what needs to be told is that the PPP vitiated the consensus model in the constitution by including the right of the president to go in the unilateral direction if he/she wanted.

Aubrey went on to point out to me that you have to blame the PPP, because Jagdeo and company were happy with that perspective, since the unilateral space favoured them; they felt the PPP would never lose power. Aubrey indicated that he did pen a letter about history coming back to haunt power-hungry people. He sent it to me. The letter adds nothing new to what humans know about history and human failings, but in two contexts – the court’s decision and Aubrey’s reintegration into the PNC’s leadership – parts of the letter need to be highlighted.

Aubrey wrote (“Jagdeo and PPP laid basis to move away from Carter Formula and it has come back to haunt them,” SN, Nov. 17, 2017), “It should be recalled that it was Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP who amended the constitution to place the clause that states “Provided that if the Leader of the Opposition fails to submit a list as provided for, the President shall appoint a person….” This clause was placed in Bill No 2 of 2000 by Jagdeo and the PPP while they operated on the false premise that they would never lose power. Clearly it is Jagdeo and the PPP that laid the basis to move away from the Carter Formula. That is what happens to persons of Jagdeo’s ilk whose desire is power and not the promotion of democracy. The intention of Jagdeo and the PPP was to have a mechanism to subvert the Carter Formula if they couldn’t find someone on the opposition list to serve their interest. To this end they amended the constitution and put in place a clause permitting him to act unilaterally and legally at the same time.”

The point here is taken; people do not learn from history. Aubrey Norton is now in a position to teach the PNC about repeating the mistakes of the past. I have long regarded Aubrey as one of the few PNC leaders that have a sound, admirable, analytical mind. He can use that mind to get the PNC to remove many of the unpalatable things the PPP put into the constitution (like the unilateral choice he described above) and unto the law books, that could come back to haunt the PNC should they lose power.

One of these morbidities is the State can appeal a criminal case in the High Court even if a judge and jury acquit you. The PPP did that because it wanted to keep its detractors in jail forever, like Mark Benschop and Oliver Hinckson. Aubrey now has his chance to show his intellectual mettle to his party.

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Aubrey Norton now has a chance to avoid history’s recurrences

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