THE PNCR had a great opportunity to make a fresh start and to once and for all make a break with its troublesome past. This would have been accomplished had the party put up some fresh and younger faces on its leadership map. Rather, the PNCR decided to forge ahead with men from the past. This will hurt the PNCR because, once again, the party has shown that it is not very good at electoral politics. For nearly three decades the party actually pushed meaningful electoral strategies aside for the much easier option of winner-take-all through electoral fraud.

The men from the past will do the PNCR no good. One of these seniors – an economist – presided over the selling out of Guyana for next-to-nothing. Mortgaging the country’s assets was done to get the ERP going because without IMF funds Guyana would have been literally bankrupt.

The people called the ERP – Empty Rice Pot. Keep in mind that in the late 1980s Guyana was an economic disaster-case and one of the few countries in Latin America that had refused to democratize. The party had to be dragged to the apetura of 1992. Some still blame Hugh Desmond Hoyte for allowing a free and fair election.

The new PNCR candidate will have to work hard to deal with his military past. Being a Brigadier in an authoritarian government is serious, and Guyana is no exception. Mr. Granger was perhaps the key military-political man during the height of authoritarian rule in Guyana.
He basically has two options. He can follow the advice of some top PNC insiders and apologise for his participation in the authoritarian regime. Actually, now that he is leader, he will have to make two apologies, one for himself, and one for the party. Otherwise, he can mask his military past, and thus compromise one of the reasons for being pushed to the top.
To state the problem clearly so there is no misunderstanding, Mr. Granger needs to talk about the past before he can begin to talk about the future. I do want to take this opportunity to congratulate the gentleman on his rise to the top.