…the PNC
Old folks say you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper and call it “change” but it’s still going to stink to high heavens!! And boy does the PNC stink – even though it keeps wrapping itself with all sorts of different paper!! There was PNCR – the “R” for “Reform” – Desmond Hoyte brought in some “moderates” from outside the party in an attempt to clean up its disreputable and thuggish reputation after he’d first jettisoned Hamilton Green.
That application of disinfectant didn’t do anything about the smell since nothing had changed in terms of the party’s policies, programme of even ethnic makeup. The latter, of course, had always been the fundamental determinant of Guyanese politics. And soon enough, there was another attempt – this time to bring in a wider swathe of “outsiders” under the PNC umbrella. Unfortunately, they launched the entity as “PNC-R 1 Guyana:, without realising the irony of the acronym “PNC-R1G”. It just provoked paroxysm of mirth because of the history of rigging through the decades by the PNC!! PNC-R1G soon died a quick death and the party reverted to PNC/R, even thought it was no longer apparent who or what was the “Reform” component, and the policies were PNC all the way!
Finally, after two decades of languishing in the Opposition wilderness, the powers that be of the PNC decided that more than lipstick was needed to get folks to give the PNC a second look. Leader Corbin decided to commit political hara kiri, step aside and support Brig (rtd) David Granger as the new leader – even though he had to use the party’s rigging skills to achieve this at their Congress. Granger, who’d never been in the party’s executive, later revealed he’d always been a staunch PNC member. Which explained his actions while a member and leader of the GDF.
Granger decided that he alone didn’t provide enough lipstick to the PNC – everyone still saw it as what it was: an unreconstituted PNC! So he spearheaded a coalition with some micro parties – WPA, JFAP, NFA, and changed their name to APNU. Voting wise, nothing much changed in the 2011 elections, but the AFC did pick up enough seats to comprise with APNU a one-seat majority in the National Assembly. The PPP held on to the presidency because of our unique “plurality” requirement to capture the presidency. But once again, there was nothing different about the PNC-as-APNU.
Even the WPA, which still retained a moral high ground in sections of the PNC’s base because of the principled stance of Walter Rodney, couldn’t do anything to change the overweening dominance of the PNC in the “partnership”.
…in the coalition fiction
But if it’s one thing you gotta give the PNC’s leadership credit for, it’s their willingness to try whatever it takes to hide their rancid smell to get into power. It didn’t take a genius to figure out if APNU could engineer a coalition with the AFC for the next elections, the latter could take them over the tape, even if they didn’t pick up any additional votes. AFC leader Ramjattan famously protested that his party would become “dead meat” if he joined the PNC – so he’d obviously smelt the PNC!!
But it’s truly said, “everyone has a price” – and Granger negotiated the “Cummingsburg Accord” which promised the AFC the sun and moon. They took the bait and won the 2015 elections with their APNU/AFC coalition. It was soon clear, however, that Granger had suckered them: apart from grandiose titles and hefty salaries, they had absolutely no real power!!
As PPP’s candidate Donald Ramotar had predicted on the hustings, they got “larwah”!!
Which they evidently enjoyed!!
…for the future
So what’s ahead for the PNC? With elections coming whether they like it or not, the PNC has decided to continue with the charade of hiding their stench with paper parties!
PNC’s George Norton says, they’re “against one-party government”!!
