…and murkier PNC
Just when your Eyewitness thought the PNC had hit a new low with the infighting between Aubrey Norton and Royston Forde for the head honcho position, there comes the right honourable G/town Ex-Mayor, Pandit and ex-GDF Staff Sergeant Ubraj Narine, accusing Norton and one of his hand-picked allied executives of “racism” against Indian PNC members!!
Now, competition for leadership is expected – even salutary – for political parties, even when they get bloody!!
Remember the PNC was founded on a leadership struggle by Burnham against Jagan!! And Desmond Hoyte did what everyone thought was impossible and expelled long-time PNC strongman Hamilton Green when the latter vied for leadership. It was just a continuation of the tradition!! But to bring racism into the open??
Burnham always cited his non-racial street cred by citing that when he broke away from Jagan, two of the top Indian leaders – Latchmansingh and Jainarine Singh — followed him, and did not follow Jagan!! Never mind the former died early and the latter quit – and accused Burnham of racism!!
Anyhow, the tradition remained: of Indians being placed in the top tier of the party, albeit as bridesmaids, like Winston Murray, but never as the bride. But with the past Chairman Amna Ally supporting Forde as the new leader and saying that “Norton wasn’t fit to be leader” all hell’s breaking out. Rather than assuming it as a factional matter – that Aunty Amna belongs to the Granger faction that hates Norton’s guts and backs Forde – the goodly Pandit has released the race genie from the bottle into which it had been pushed back!! Amna and he are Indians, he asserts!!
Aunty Amna also expanded on her early denunciation of Norton to bring out the racial angle. She referred to former Treasurer Mr Faaiz Mursaline – an Indian – who resigned as a result of being forced to sign blank cheques with no supporting documents. Then she invoked the case of Geeta Chandan, whom Norton had appointed as General Secretary of the PNC, but who was forced to resign after it was alleged that she was set up to disgrace herself in the National Assembly!!
The only Indian in the Exec whose “name wasn’t called” was Mahipal – who’s facing other accusations to bring him down!! But earlier, when a PNC-allied group supporting Norton had allegedly made a statement that the GDF should turn their guns on Indians, Mahipal, Chandan and Narine had denounced the statement. And were branded “slave catchers” who were betraying their comrades to deliver them to the PPP!!
So, what lies ahead for the PNC on the race question? For one, they cannot win any election without expanding their present base by bringing in Indians. So, they’ll have to fall back on brute force and ignorance!!
…before light?
Hey…your Eyewitness lives in Guyana, so he gotta express frustration at the blackouts that he and other Guyanese have been forced to endure. But he’d like to remind all and sundry that, back in 2013, everything was set for the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project to be launched, with financing and contractor in place. By now we would’ve been enjoying 165MW of electricity, which would’ve taken care of all our needs, and then some!!
But guess what? It was the PNC and AFC that scuttled the project, after they announced they’d pull the plug if they were elected. The political risk was too great for the contractor Sithe, and they pulled out. Now, this doesn’t mean that GPL gets a free pass on not taking care of business now – especially after those seventeen generators were brought in late last year. Why aren’t they all hooked up?
It’s great that ten Cuban power engineers are coming in, but the management team’s gonna have to get with the programme. Patience is wearing thin!!
…PNC barge
Back in 1988, during the height of the blackouts, then Deputy PM Robert Corbin bought a touted 10-megawatt power barge from Miami for US$3 million. It never produced more than 4 megawatts of power, and soon blew up!
