The huffing and puffing Norton will not succeed in wresting power through “kith and kin” politics

Jun 06, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,
Aubrey Norton’s thinly-veiled threat “If not treated with respect, I’ll deal with Irfaan Ali… and that’s the bottom line “.
This is the recurrent theme underpinning every PNC leadership, beginning from Burnham’s collaboration with UK and USA to bring down the Jagan government, using the PNC-crafted X-13 Plan that forced Dr. Jagan to accede to restructured electoral systems that he was aware were inimical to his government and the nation, in a bid to save the nation from rampaging mobs that literally destroyed the city in February 12, 1962, that was precipitated by Burnham’s speech, in part: “Comrades, the fight starts now. Tomorrow at 2 o’clock in the afternoon there is a demonstration organized by the Trade Union Congress… No doubt the Riot Squad will be there. Do you still want to go? Comrades, remember that tomorrow Jagan’s army is coming down from Cane Grove and Windsor Forest. Do you still want to go?” (Wynn Parry Commission).” This speech eventuated in the burning and looting of several businesses in Georgetown on Black Friday February 16, 1962. The Wynn Parry Commission described Burnham thus, “The real motivating force behind Mr. Burnham’s assault was a desire to assert him in public life and establish a more important and more rewarding position for him by bringing about Dr. Jagan’s downfall.”
Ralph Seeram wrote: “The incitement of the mobs by the opposition leaders, trade union, as well as the business class, culminated on Black Friday, February 16, 1962. The riotous mobs attacked the Electricity Plant, the Water Works, Parliament as well as Premier Jagan’s residence as well as the business that supported the budget. At the end of Black Friday 56 businesses were destroyed, 87 damaged by fire and 66 were looted.” Almost every PNC leader, down the corridors of Guyana’s history, instead of seeking to be part of the developmental paradigm of a PPP/PPPC administration, has instigated their supporters into violence and destructive programmes to gain power, converse to PPP’s actions when that party is in opposition – mainly through rigged elections. PPP leaders in government on the other hand, in attempts to save the country from PNC violence and destruction, have several times acceded to conditions inimical to their own interests: A case in point is the truncation of Mrs. Janet Jagan’s presidency.
Every PPP/PPPC President has reached out to PNC leaders to join in collective endeavours in nation-building and had either been rebuffed, or good-faith agreements were honoured in the breach.
This latest grandstanding by Norton is a PNC norm. However, even PNC supporters are becoming aware that their traditional leaders are failing them and are embracing educational/empowerment/wealth and job-creational programmes by the Irfaan Ali-led administration that are intended to truly provide them with tools to attain for themselves “the good life.”
The huffing and puffing Norton will not succeed in wresting power through “kith and kin” politics anymore because, in Guyanese parlance “This time nah lang time” and their supporters have emancipated themselves from mental slavery.
Yours truly,
Erin Northe

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