NOW that the PNCR is teamed up with the WPA and other smaller parties (JOPP), will it concede half of all parliamentary seats and cabinet appointments if they win the 2011 elections?

No doubt there is much concern within the PNCR of its new-found political friends.  Press reports highlighting the widespread Sophia dissatisfaction with the PNCR’s coalition partners are no surprise.

In fact, the SN in a web page analysis on Tuesday June 7, titled ‘Second thoughts about the candidates’ brought the issue into the public domain. Grumbling within the PNCR “it  appears, is not making life easier for the Brigadier (in) that, reportedly on his insistence, the PNCR has signed on to a coalition with three smaller parties whom, one would assume,now have a say in how the PNCR’s  campaign will be handled. The word is that there are lots of pouting and grumbling at Sophia by some of the PNCR’s purists who say that Granger has brought ‘baggage’ on board and that the three smaller members of the coalition are in fact getting something for nothing”

It is an open secret that the WPA is only a paper tiger with no membership, money or party machinery and less is known of the others in the Joint Opposition Political Parties (JOPP) coalition. Will the black-based PNCR concede to the demands of today’s top-heavy Indian WPA to get half of the parliamentary seats and cabinet ministries like a top-heavy black WPA demanded of the Indian based PPP/C before the 1992 elections?

To its credit,  the PPP’s last-minute concession of the Prime Ministership to WPA’s presidential candidate Dr Clive Thomas was rejected by the then top-heavy black WPA. Dr Thomas subsequently became a prominent activist in the post-1992 all African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) which justifiably champions black political and cultural affirmation.

Dr. Rupert Roopnarine who was bypassed as the successor to Dr Walter Rodney as WPA leader before the 1992 elections was subsequently affixed the head of the WPA skeleton when things fell apart.  Dr Roopnarine and other WPA Indians’ disdainful   aversion of “Indianness” contrary to Dr Thomas’s and other black activists bold immersion in Pan Africanism and black cultural advocacy is no secret.

Nevertheless, Dr Rupert Roopnarine yet aspires to be the JOPP presidential candidate hoping to convince Guyanese and the PNCR that he will be the shining Indian star which attracts Indians to the dominant PNC/JOPP coalition. Would the PNC go along with this strategy? There is no doubt the PNCR needs to fix its image to attract crossover, disenchanted Indians.

A compromise by the predominantly black PNCR would be a seismic lesson for black responsiveness to demands for “equality” from a top-heavy Indian WPA. On the contrary, any silence, disinterest or non-support from black activists to the current Roopnarine-led WPA to get half of the cabinet ministries and parliamentary seats would validate the view that blacks only see Indians and other Indian-led institutions as targets for perpetual plunder. But such black activists could shock everyone by evenhanded “equality” advocacy for all races in support of their old policy and Rodney’s WPA. This remains to be seen but is not a certainty.

The perception that blacks will only demand “equality” in perpetuity from Indians as an entitlement became obvious when Dr David Hinds wrote an article in the New York City WPA’s newspaper Caribbean Daylight demanding “equality” for blacks immediately after Trinidad’s UNC led by Baseo Panday won that country’s general elections in 1995. Neither Dr Hinds nor any other black Guyanese have ever sought “equality” for Indians from the black-based PNM which ruled Trinidad for 41 years (1956 to 1995)!
Dr Hinds is yet to post that article on the WPA website as an example to his fairness and “equality”.

With the PNCR under criticisms for rigging the 1973 elections, especially Mr. Granger’s controversial role, he may yet seek to cleanse his party’s image by accommodating the top heavy Indian-led WPA’s demands for half the cabinet ministries. After all, he is the democratically elected presidential candidate mandated to lead the PNCR to victory.

Now that Mr. Peter Ramsaroop’s (GPP) has rejoined the JOPP coalition, he at least brings much financial wealth which none of the smaller parties possesses. At least Mr Ramsaroop who had been a PNCR partner/supporter has had a history of working with that party. No less disdainful of his Indianness, he presents a similar Indian face for the PNCR to clean its image as he has not made any demands for cabinet ministries or parliamentary seats.

Who will be the PNCR’s new UF coalition partner for 2011?