PNCR-1G leader the Hon. Robert Corbin has announced that he will not be the presidential candidate come the next election. That appears to be a good decision for the party, but it is not likely to be enough if the party really wants to contribute to this country’s development. Here is why.

The last leadership election produced considerable tensions in the party. Mr. Corbin probably knows why. Ask him. Many party die-hards left, and no one knows if stalwarts like Alexander (and his team) might return. It might be even more difficult for the reform members to join again. Even if those who had bolted were to return, it is unlikely that they would be accepted or trusted. Those who stayed would demand their ‘pound of flesh’.

Mr. Corbin’s departure looks like a big move, but it isn’t. There are too many old PNC ‘Big Ones’ in there who are from the past and still welded to the past. Think of Big Ones like Hamilton Green and Cammie Ramsaroop. These are the very people who presided over the bankruptcy of this country and who were the masters of rigging elections. These are the very men who gave slogans like Feed, Clothes and House the nation, but who built no houses, and starved the country for basic food stuff.

Green is the Mayor of Georgetown, a city he has mismanaged for nearly two decades.

Many of the men still at the top of the PNCR are the very ones who dictated that unless you have a PNC card, you won’t get even the basics. If you went to the KSI with a PNC party card you would get two pounds of flour; no card no flour. Incidentally, someone had to point out to Mr. Norton in parliament recently that Knowledge Sharing Institutes (KSIs) were actually PNC government controlled grocery stores. The stores had nothing in them excepting a few comrades behind the counter.

Do you remember those days when a guy with eight O’ Levels could not find a job but a guy with two CP’s and a party card could become a manager in the civil service? Do you folks who live overseas recall those X’s that were marked on your suitcases and the strategy of no X, no departure, unless you left a lil something.

Have you all forgotten the days when you were rounded up at work and transported to various locations to applaud the speeches of the Comrade Leader?

Listen, it is good to see some changes in the PNCR, nominal though it might be. But don’t be fooled. The party has not moved on. It is dogged by the old heads that have no experience with winning an election.