The coalition with the AFC, with the extremely disadvantageous terms conceded to that miniscule political party by the APNU, has seemingly driven the final nail in the coffin of the PNC.Nagamootoo’s popularity with PPP supporters was milked for the 2011 elections through clever gimmickry and rhetoric. It would not work again, because former PPP supporters, moved by the emotion of the moment, who trusted Nagamootoo and gave him their votes in 2011, have felt absolutely betrayed by Nagamootoo’s and Ramjattan’s open collusion with the despised PNC under its new guise as APNU, and are returning to the PPP fold in droves; so Nagamootoo’s promise to deliver thousands of Indian votes to the PNC is merely bluff and fluff.
The AFC is practically a dead party, and Nagamootoo is astute enough to know that the party he chose to align himself with in his craze for power is practically defunct, and trending towards becoming as dormant as the WPA and other inconsequential parties in the APNU make-up, so the leadership, comprising many lawyers versed in configuring solutions advantageous to themselves, created a strategic formula to keep themselves relevant in the political fray.
Granger bought the formula and sold out the PNC to do so, consequently robbing PNC stalwarts of seating and accrued benefits in the National Assembly when the House reconvenes after the elections in May of this year.
Even if the AFC wins only one seat, it will be assured of 40% of the opposition seats in Parliament, while the 60% will have to be shared between the PNC and the other mini parties in the APNU configuration: So first Granger demolished the PNC name and construct of the party Burnham founded to found his own alliance – APNU; and now he has compounded that with practically giving away a lion’s share of the spoils to the likes of opportunists like Ramjattan and Nagamootoo.
Since the People’s National Congress was given birth by the late Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, that political party has been, and remained, from the inception a vibrant force in local social and political dynamics, and the leadership, with initially Burnham at the helm, then Hoyte, has remained committed and steadfast to the core values of the party.
Enter Corbin, and with him the slow disintegration of the second strongest political force in Guyana.
Leadership challenges began, membership was being lost at an alarming rate; but worse was the infighting as more and more of the executive members began feeling alienated to a political party they had given absolute loyalty from their youth.
So Burnham loyalists became determined to return the PNC to its glory days by removing Corbin, whom they solely blamed for the disintegration of the PNC, and replace him with someone in whom they placed their faith to restore the strength of their party.
But bit by bit, the core leadership was eliminated out of the equation, with challengers to leadership claiming rigging in the internal electoral processes. Corbin remained as supreme leader while the swathe of vengeance scythed away aspiring leaders like Vincent Alexander, Aubrey Norton, Raphael Trotman, Faith Harding et al. Those who supported opposing candidates were vengefully weeded out of the executive and gradually the strength and vibrancy of the PNC became diluted because those remaining became apathetic and directionless.
Until Corbin realised that if he remained, he would become leader of a defunct political party. His future personal well-being was secure in any case, because the PPP/C Government has provided the leader of the opposition with wages, benefits and a retirement package almost in line with that of the president; so Corbin would never go in want of any imaginable luxury. These were the factors that propelled his search for his successor; but instead of choosing someone who had the absolute loyalty of party members, he went out of the box and chose someone who was an absolute political novice, which further alienated hardcore PNC-ites.
David Granger’s emergence as a power within PNC leadership heralded many changes; but the most shocking change was the re-structuring of the Burnham-founded PNC, eliminating executive members who had served the party with loyalty and distinction from their youth and injecting non-affiliates in a new avatar he renamed A Partner for National Unity (APNU), which key members saw as a betrayal, because none of the new affiliate parties, heads of which automatically became executive leaders of the new political conglomeration, had any membership to speak of and all had been almost defunct; so it was an anomalous partnership. As a consequence, disillusioned PNC membership melted away in droves; thus it was when former PNC leadership contender, Raphael Trotman co-founded the Alliance for Change (AFC), many former PNC members voted solidly for that fledgling political party.
The angst of party loyalists, who see newcomers who had never contributed anything to their party, like Jaipaul Sharma, Rupert Roopnarine and others, enjoying the power, prominence and benefits that come with their appointment as parliamentarians, sidelining major players like Faith Harding, Aubrey Norton, Volda Lawrence, Mervyn Williams, Vanessa Kissoon et al, has added to the internal corrosion of the second oldest, once powerful political party in Guyana.
The ineffective leadership, which only grandstands with sanctimonious speeches, cutting successive budgets and derailing the development of their own support bases, and their unyielding position of non-support on the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Terrorism bill, as well as their stymieing of transformative developmental national projects – with all the implications for Guyana and all Guyanese, that has made the APNU a mocking stock in Guyana and the world, is another factor that seems to spell doom to the once powerful brainchild of Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham who, despite everything, was one of the most brilliant leaders Guyana has ever produced. Granger has, without doubt, presided over the demise of the People’s National Congress, and this final act of a coalition with terms abysmally disadvantageous to the PNC.He seems to be ringing that party’s death knell.