PNC election results – Part 4: Harmon’s harmonica never had harmony

Jan 05, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – My point is that Aubrey Norton didn’t win the election, Harmon lost. So why did Norton win? Because there were only two candidates and Harmon was seen as the bad guy in the competition. Delegates did not vote for Norton. They voted against Harmon.
I am strongly contending that if there wasn’t a terrible, mediocre, visionless, disappointing five years of Harmon as de facto president, he would have beaten Norton if the two had squared off while the PNC was in power.
First, the trend in politics is that people do not believe putting back a leader who lost the government. It is just the way people feel about politics. The PPP lost by 4,500 votes in 2015 and Ramotar was the only reason. If there was an Anil Nandlall or a Dr. Vindhya Persaud there could have been reclamation of those 4,500 votes.
Mr. Ramotar was simply the wrong choice and it was natural for the PPP (as any other party around the world) to remove him from the hierarchy of the party). If Mr. Ramotar competes for a seat in the executive in the next PPP congress, he will be humiliated.
Secondly, Mr. Harmon was seen by the delegates as a president (yes, countless numbers saw him as the de facto head of government) who failed to deliver not only to Black people but to Guyanese in general. If the big wigs in the PNC and AFC had decided to accept Mr. Jagdeo’s choice for GECOM chairmanship, compensate sugar workers and call election three months after the no confidence vote, it would have been a toss-up as to the outcome in 2020
I think Granger and Harmon were doomed just like how Ramotar was doomed after 2011. These two men from the army in the 1970s never tried to learn and understand politics. Granger was a West Indian political disaster and Harmon was seen as his side-kick. If you don’t like the boss, you will hate the side kick too.
The trouble with Harmon was that he lacked charisma was not a good talker, not a good charmer, not a persuasive man. If you put Harmon and Anil Nandlall in a football field filled with people and ask them to serenade the audience as to why the world should stop eating meat, after Harmon was finished you would like pork even more. Like his boss Granger, he was not an effective West Indian politician.
It was and remains a fact that the PNC suffered one of the worst double whammies in recent memory of coalition politics. Harmon got blamed for being the favourite of a president that was resented. Harmon also got the blame from PNC constituencies for the absolute incompetence of the AFC. From 2015 to July 2020, Harmon’s harmonica wasn’t playing but he kept playing. It created a cacophonous hullabaloo instead of saccharine notes.
After losing power, it was best to protégé someone to contest for the leader’s post rather than running yourself. There is an equally potent second factor in the untergang of Harmon on December 18. He was seen as the only face in the gargantuan effort to sell the election results to the African community in Guyana.
That is a task Burnham did from 1968 to 1980. Hoyte did it in 1985. They rigged election barefacedly and did not prolong the wickedness. But Harmon’s harmonica took five months to play the notes. Each week, each month, the harmonica sound like someone using sandpaper on a piece of old wood.
After five months, there was a colossal amount of lies and deceptions that African Guyanese did not buy. The five months of election explanations cost Harmon the leader position of the PNC. You simply cannot do that to your supporters. They will feel that you take them for fools and you don’t give a damn about their dignity.
I think Harmon failed to read the nature of people, not only Black people but people in general. He should not have run period! But here is where Black leaders fool themselves. They think only they understand the African race in Guyana. That is pathetic nonsense.
I keep writing over and over that Black leaders are fooling African Guyanese who they think are pliable so they can bend them and shape them into what forms they want. Harmon felt Black people would not see through his lies that he sold them for five months. Surely, you are dealing with modern people who are intelligent. Black people know that Harmon lied and that he and Granger and the AFC lost the election battle. Next – Part 5: Norton in the saddle.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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