The PNC’s General Council met over the weekend. Now, that’s very good news. Your Eyewitness – as you’d know, Dear Reader – has always been solicitous of the health of our major Opposition party. It’s supposed to be the Government-in-waiting according to our parliamentary system of governance. “Government in waiting”, innit?!! The PPP once waited for 28 years…but did eventually become the government!! Really reinforces your Eyewitness’s faith in our system!!
But it’s not your Eyewitness who counts in these matters, is it?? It’s those folks who gathered at Congress Place who’re gonna know how best their PNC can ease the PPP out from office – and slip themselves in!! And a heck of a lot of Guyanese would like to know the answer to that question. Would the PNC continue presenting themselves as a better alternative to the PPP through the programmes and policies they espouse?? Through selecting leaders who’re more credible than the PPP’s?? Or would they follow Desmond Hoyte’s “slow fyaah, mo’ fyaah” strategy by creating mayhem in the society? Kinda along the theme “If I can’t have her (the country) then I’ll make sure YOU can’t!!”
At the launch, the PNC General Council spokesperson took pains to emphasise that the main purpose was to ensure there was “unity” in the party!! So we gonna have to break down this cryptic statement to glean answers to your Eyewitness’s questions above. Right off the bat, we can point out that if the PNC gotta bring all these folks together to foster “unity”, this signals that this quality’s perceived by the leadership to be in short supply right now!!
And we know from all the pampasetting that this lack of unity’s due mainly to several ambitious individuals who wanna be leader of the party – because they think they’re better “suited” than Norton!! And we know who they are, don’t we? Norton was picked at the last Congress in Dec 2021 for one thing and one thing only – the movers and shakers felt he had the truculence (read “balls”) to confront the PPP in the streets. THEY didn’t want to do it, because that would’ve spoiled the suave image they cultivated!! And they figured since Norton already had the reputation as a street brawler, he had nothing to lose.
But they read Norton wrong…he insisted on demonstrating his truculence by refusing to shake Pres Ali’s hand – and stayed clear of the streets!! So, here we have it – a bunch of aspirants to LFS’ seat who figure if Norton ain’t gonna play Hammie’s old thug role but try to imitate the founder leader, they had better credentials – measured tones and middle-class education – and might as well challenge him!!
But this doesn’t foster “unity”, does it??
…but no struggle?
But any aspirant to LFS’ seat gotta be au fait with the founder leader’s philosophy. As a socialist, he harked to Lenin’s dictum from “What Is To Be Done?”: “Before we can unite and in order that we may unite, we must first of all draw firm and definite lines of demarcation.” So what are those lines of demarcation, wanna-be leaders?? Just raw ambition?? These new aspirants would know that ultimately that wasn’t enough – even for LFS!!
But the socialists of yore had another take on the issue – this time from Mao Tsetung who advised: “Unity is the aim of struggle; struggle is the means to unity”. So was the PNC General Council Meeting all unity and no struggle? Hopefully, it wasn’t and a date for the next Congress was set where the aspirants could duke it out in the elections (read struggle!) for leadership. Can’t be left for “next year” since it’s due next month.
Can’t have all unity and no struggle, can we??
…in top spots
The results for the CSEC and CAPE exams are out. With our burgeoning economy, these become more critical since they’re stepping stones to qualifying and replacing furriners in the top jobs!! Topping the Caribbean’s a good sign!!
