Revising…PNC’s history

Having some time on his hands, your Eyewitness decided to take “a look and listen” to the latest Desmond Hoyte Commemorative Lecture – this one being the 11th since he passed in 2002. It was delivered by a technocrat who became an insider with the PNC under Desmond Hoyte after he acceded to the presidency back in 1985 – Dr Aubrey Armstrong. Offering his background – which evidently started with him working under Hoyte, who was then a Minister – he hinted he left when he ran afoul of the then PM Ptolemy Reid and returned when Hoyte was bumped upwards. Hoyte appointed him to the PNC Central Executive…using his powers as leader!! This made Armstrong his “creature” similarly to Aubrey Norton as General Secretary – whom he could then fire at will!!
It seems Armstrong got as close as anyone could to the austere Hoyte – and used the latter’s handling of leadership of the PNC and Government to suggest – without calling names – what the present PNC leader Norton ought to be doing!! But while his theoretical formulations sounded good, in your Eyewitness’s estimate, he didn’t contextualise them enough!! For example, he lauds Hoyte’s “walking” – as like in cricket when we’re given out! – after he lost the elections in 1992!! But he neglected to mention that it took a visit from Jimmy Carter – who patched him through to a call from the President of America, Bill Clinton – to convince him to step down!! In cricket you don’t wait for the umpire – here the electorate – to threaten with jailtime before you “walk”!! A more apt example woulda been the 1986 elections – which Hoyte rigged on a scale far exceeding any of Burnham’s efforts!!
Then there was the advice to accept a wide array of views inside the party and not be afraid of those views being expressed!! If your Eyewitness remembers right, as soon as Hoyte took over as leader, he decapitated every leader who could challenge him!! He used various subterfuges – banishments as ambassadors, side-lining – like with Granger with Joe Singh, expulsion – like with Hamilton Green, and firing – like with Aubrey Norton!! And so on and so forth!! And with the lauded “Reform” wing Hoyte created for the PNC – wasn’t this to fill the gaps he’d created with his bloodbath of the “long knives”?? This allowed him to pick persons from the outside with no political bases – who were then totally beholden to him!!
But as your Eyewitness listened to Armstrong describing how he moved up in the PNC echelons, all he could think was how could Jeffrey appoint him to arbitrate the 1999 public servants’ strike against the PPP government – where he was awarded a 36% raise!!
Oh…they were BOTH PNC!! Sleeper cell!!

…international law!
It would seem that we’ve really entered a new world in the wake of Pres Trump’s extraction of Mad Maduro as Venezuela’s President – and replacing him with his deputy Delirious, Devious Delcy!! It seems that she can’t unilaterally rewrite four hundred internal laws – promulgated by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648! – that each state have sovereignty over their affairs!!
She took time to fly over to the World Court at the Hague to personally inform the World Court that the people of Venezuela, through their referendum on December 3, 2023, ALREADY decided how the border controversy should be resolved!!
“They turned out in large numbers at the polls and gave us a series of clear and unequivocal mandates. Firstly, the mandate maintains the historical position of existential matters such as independence and territorial integrity to judicial mechanisms. Secondly, their mandate is to uphold the Geneva Agreement as the only valid, legal instrument for resolving the territorial dispute over the Essequibo”!!
Ipso facto, the right to annex Essequibo! High on cocaine??

…leaders’ regimen
Jetting in late Monday night from a packed schedule in Canada, Pressie went out with several ministers to personally observe the impact of massive flooding from the heavy rains in GT!
Answers gotta be forthcoming!!