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PNCR Congress

Jul 06, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It was a foregone conclusion that Aubrey Norton would be returned as leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).  The party’s Congress merely served as the official stamp of approval to conclude that sensitive business.  Frankly, the members who stepped forward as challengers for the top position were never really seen as significant threats, never got off the ground.  Now Norton is the one appointed to lead the way forward, and he has a lot on his hands.

He has been given a clear mandate, despite considerable misgivings about his fortitude.  He has been slow out of the blocks, seemingly weighed down by the infighting that has limited his capacity to build a viable team to be a potent force in Guyana’s volatile political environment.  A crucial election is on the cards, and unless he has the strongest element of trust in his comrades, his concentration on the juggernaut that hangs over Guyana would be less than optimal.  Mr. Norton himself has been a study in the unsure, a leader feeling for the right words to inspire his listeners, to confirm that he has what it takes, and that he will fight for Guyanese.  Whether he agrees or not is irrelevant, but the great oil wealth of Guyana is the key to making good on all those promises made at his party’s Congress.

He shuns from being at his fullest power on this national patrimony, and he strains his leadership credentials.  He ducks from taking the stand that Guyanese need on this wealth, then he damages his prospects, his standing, his readiness for fearless leadership.  From the PNCR Congress, and in his opening address, Norton hit some of the right notes on some of the issues that plague the life of citizens hailed as the richest in the world.  Extreme child poverty was one, cost of living struggles another, inequitable distribution of resources still another, and infrastructure imbalance among a host of concerning issues.  There is every agreement with the Opposition Leader that children begging on the streets and the blinding cronyism of the ruling PPPC Government is crippling this country, and the spirit of its peoples.  Some of these issues are so chronic that to repeat them and then do nothing about them (besides posturing) is tantamount to a crime.  It is time that the teasing of citizens, of toying with their hopes, and taking them for granted cease.

All things being equal, gold is helpful but will only carry a few.  Similarly, agriculture, as much as it could contribute, does have its limits in the national scheme.  When all is analyzed and refined, Guyana’s enormous oil wealth is what is going to be the difference maker, and by the widest margin.  All roads, no matter how avoided, come right back to the oil and they stop right there.  The Opposition Leader knows this, or should, and there is no minimizing this.  Oil is the game changer and it is today, not years into the future, as has been promised and finessed.  Norton himself has been about finesse on this oil.  His positions and nuances must be refined to become more direct and potent on oil.  If not, then all the troubling areas of bad governance that he pinpointed would go a begging from a lack of the kind of resources to change the way things are.  He cannot hedge, he cannot continue to split hairs on this patrimony.  It is the inheritance of Guyanese that hold what is required to lift all Guyanese to the different state that they deserve, but which has been sadly denied.

More from ExxonMobil for the oil of Guyanese means more for all the programs that he identified as being in dire need of correction.  Oil is money and money means the benefits that must come to Guyanese.  The money, in whatever form, must be wrested from ExxonMobil, and it will not be easy.  Norton either comes to this fateful pass, or what he is doing is identical to what his political opponents in the PPPC Government, are doing.  Making speeches, blowing spit bubbles.  Guyanese have had too much of both.  Aubrey Norton has a chance to deliver.  It starts and stops with oil.

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