The race is not for the swift

Jul 11, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The PNC/R has no other choice but to retain David Granger at its Leader. He is the most fit and proper person to guide the party over the next five years.
Intellectually and ideologically there is no match for him within the party. And this makes him the best choice to help the party undergo yet another of its metamorphosis over the next 10 years.
The PNC/R committed political suicide when it refused to accept the democratic will of the electorate, when it tried to benefit from the attempt to rig the elections. Those were unforgiveable acts, which Guyanese, including some of its supporters, will not forget. And there is no way that any Coalition involving the PNC/R is going to win an election in 2025.
The PNC/R showed that, despite the new image, it remains the same old crooked party, which had rigged elections between 1968 and 1985.
The PNC/R has as good a chance of winning the 2025 polls as fowl cock has of growing teeth. Over the next four years, the party simply cannot undo the damage that was done.
The forthcoming Congress of the party must not deceive itself and its supporters into believing that it can regain the trust of the majority of the electorate.
But all is not lost. The party is very adept at remaking its image. Between 1985 and 1992, Desmond Hoyte tried remodelling the image of his government.
There was a grouping established called the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP). Two of the CREEPs became very close to Bharrat Jagdeo, and both became Ministers in PPP/C governments.
But that grouping which revolved around Desmond Hoyte never penetrated into the party. It was however part of Hoyte’s remaking of his image to show that his government was more sympathetic to the business class. It had also tried to project Hoyte as being receptive to East Indians. This is why after he lost the 1992 elections and conceded, he was tagged as ‘Desmond Persaud.’
After the 1992 loss, the PNC/R again tried to reinvent its public image. It went as far as changing the name of the party from the PNC to the PNC/Reform and to PNC/R. The Reform has tremendous influence on Hoyte but there was resistance to this influence within the party.
Despite this, the control of the party remained in the hands of a small clique which, led ironically by Hoyte, was able to prevent Winston Murray becoming the Leader of the party. These image changes of the party were essentially window-dressing.
After the PNC/R’s defeat at the 2006 elections, and the margin of that defeat, it was realised that the existing leader, Robert Corbin, was unelectable as President. And so there began a process to remake the image of party by finding a Presidential candidate who was more electable.
That candidate turned out to be David Granger. He not only came over as “electable’ but led the party, in an alliance with the AFC, into political office in 2015, after being out of power for 23 years.
David Granger had all the attributes, which the party was looking for. He was seen as an honest and decent person without political baggage. He turned out to be just the tonic, which the PNC/R needed to reinvent itself.
But David Granger was no poster boy. The PNC/R under his leadership has been transformed into a different kind of party. It now has a heavy presence of ex-military officers within its leadership.
And even after he lost office in 2020, Granger was not finished with the remaking of the party. He catapulted, his right man, Joseph Harmon, as Leader of the Opposition even though Harmon had only just become a member of the Central Executive of the party.
A form of military-styled discipline is being imposed on the party. In the squabble for leadership, this aspect of the remake of the party is being ignored.
David Granger is re-calibrating his party, not for 2025 but for 2030. Many of the senior leaders of the party – Volda Lawrence, Basil Williams and George Norton – for example have not been returned to parliament. For all intents and purposes, they never will be.
A new group of leaders is being groomed as part of the remake for 2030. If Granger is removed as leader that recasting of the image of the party will be upturned.
Those who feel that they can unseat him as Leader are making a mistake. The race is not for the swift. And David Granger has not yet completed his.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

The race is not for the swift

Related

Similar Articles

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

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Fifties from Knight/Alleyne, bowlers help Barbados trounce Guyana

Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Haiti Dominate...

Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali to replace...

Jagdeo urges Associations to take a business...

The Battle for Barbados: One Guyana Racing Stable...

Tyrrell breaks 12-year-old school record to claim...

Features/Columnists

The PPP/C’s rotten return

Why the U.S. Should Strengthen Trade Ties with the Caribbean

Elections’ victory

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The race is not for the swift

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 […]