By Ron Cheong
SOME people will not change. They keep on grinding the same old grudges. Such is the leadership of the country’s main political opposition, the People’s National Congress (PNC). The world has moved on, but their leadership hasn’t.

Eleven years ago, the party tried re-branding with a name change to A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). The leadership, however, neglected to change their own attitudes. You wouldn’t repaint your old car without first grinding out the rust. But this is what was done.

The old leadership thinking remained embedded in the party. Moreover, little time was spent on developing good governance policies and programme ideas.

The cosmetic changes did, however, help the PNC/APNU form the past government along with the Alliance For Change (AFC).

It gave them the opportunity to show their hand at governance, only to be removed in one term as their more moderate supporters became disillusioned when the same old behaviours and absence of policy direction surfaced. The cracks showed with their middle-of-the-road supporters withholding their vote in the 2020 elections.

Now this disillusionment appears to be spreading further, as evidenced by the reception to the high-level post-Mon Repos outreach to Buxton led by Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who was performing the duty of President at the time.

The well-attended outreach in Buxton contrasted sharply with the meagre support for the opposition-sponsored “Day of Protest,” also at Buxton on the same day. And even organizations usually in their corner such as the Guyana Human Rights Association, which had remained conspicuously silent throughout the five-month 2020 elections-rigging attempt, reproved what had transpired in Mon Repos.

In fact, the blowback has been such that Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton is tripping all over himself with absurd claims. His efforts to deflect will only further damage his credibility.

A strong political opposition is beneficial to any country. But the current political opposition’s decades-old entrenched leadership styles have not allowed fresh ideas to incubate and come forward in the echo chamber they have maintained.

They seem to not see that their call to “undermine this government” aims at undermining their own country. And that they are seeking to contaminate the communal drinking pool.

Shifting Tide
But slowly, the tide is shifting. Some persons from their established support bases are beginning to realise the above.

They realize that while their leaders’ livelihoods are secure, it is the supporters’ own aspirations to live satisfying lives that are being compromised by the very leaders who benefit from political strife.

The Opposition leadership ignores the lessons of the past. It was not too long ago that their myopic behaviour caused some of their supporters to become disaffected with them.

Even if those supporters couldn’t make the leap to vote for another party, they didn’t come out for the APNU+AFC. This was true throughout the country and, importantly, even in some areas of traditionally strong support.

Now in opposition, they harp continuously, to the exclusion of everything else, on singular insulating topics such as ethnic identity, inequitable resource allocation and power theatrics, focusing more on enforcing the idea of a stranglehold on their support bases rather than on ushering those persons to improve support services which can help to improve their lives.

Meanwhile, the government has been swiftly implementing a host of programmes to improve people’s lives. There is, for example, the small-business grants recently rolled out to Sophia residents, and grants to small farmers and cash croppers.

There is also the part-time jobs programme that has created jobs and employed 1,000 people in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice), 3,000 people in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), and 2,000 people in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

The programme has been so well taken up in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) that it had to be increased from 1,000 jobs to 1,700 jobs.

The “better governance” is having an impact. It is too early yet to call this any sort of tipping point, but there has been some, even if small, shifting in the sands.

Younger, More Mixed, Better Educated
Guyana has long been a multi-ethnic society. You are hard-pressed to tell the ethnicity of many Guyanese by their names.

In 2025, more than 70,000 young Guyanese will become eligible to vote for the first time. And more than a quarter of these first-time eligible voters will have self-identified as “mixed” race, making them the second largest component group of first-time voters by ethnicity.

The country is made up of distinct cultural parts, but it is also more integrated than opposition politicians find useful.

There are also other sweeping forces at play: over half of Guyana’s population is under 30 years of age. The creation of thousands of jobs through various programmes will foster more social contact.

People’s mobility is also increasing with roads and bridges being built. The interior parts of the country are being opened up. Where people are not on the electrical grid, solar panels are being installed. Electronic connectivity capacity is also improving. Children are having more access to education.

In short, the voting population is becoming increasingly of mixed ethnicities, younger, better educated, and more connected.

Also, with home ownership on the increase, people have a greater stake and are looking for safety and security.

Many overseas Guyanese are returning to retire here. The current Opposition leadership is moving in a direction counter to all these developments. They are not contributing positively to improving life in Guyana.

Manufactured strife and disunity are counterproductive to say the least. Their energies could have, instead, been spent in channelling the youth of communities such as Golden Grove in directions and pursuits that would be of lasting long-term benefits to them.

This would benefit both the communities and the country as a whole. Change is needed from inside the PNC/APNU party.