TWO years ago, I argued in these columns that the dilemma the PNC faces is that it gets blamed for the extremist, outlandish and horrifying emanations from the lunatic fringe (TLF) because people associate the PNC with the TLF. In many cases, the PNC stood silent or subtly avoid commenting on some of the politically terrifying things TLF said.

The examples of the insane outpourings of TLF run into dozens but two will suffice for now. One of them asserted on social media that people should run PPP leaders off the road. Another said that an Indian PNC parliamentarian is a slave-catcher. In all these pools of political insanities from TLF, the PNC never made a public statement in support and that was sensible politics.
It is not only sensible politics but commonsensical politics. There are people out there that say alarming things but they are not leaders of political parties asking people to vote for them in a country where the demographics do not easily make for electoral victory of over 51 per cent from any particular demographic site.

Rickford Burke, Mark Benschop, David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye, and their acolytes are not party politicians who depend on multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-class support for their party at election time. They don’t have a party and they are not contesting elections.

Such people have immeasurable latitude to say wild things. Politicians do not have such maneuverability. If any politician in any political party does not understand that, then, they have no place in electoral politics and should not participate in parliamentary contests.

President Ali recently visited certain sections of New York, where there are visible areas of African Guyanese presence. He was warmly received. As a reaction to the positive embrace, Rickford Burke and Mark Benschop called on Guyanese in those districts to boycott the Guyanese business places that showed warmth and affection for the President.

The reaction to Burke and Benschop was expected. People see them as extremists who are outside the main frame of Guyanese politics. In what can only be a disaster for the PNC, its leader, Aubrey Norton endorsed the boycott call. Up to this time, the collective leadership of the PNC had stayed away from collaborating with such extremist activism.

The boycott call simply makes no sense and it is yet another indication that Aubrey Norton has lost his political compass. What is wrong with Guyanese business owners welcoming the President of Guyana on his visit to New York? What logical argument can one invent to justify that? Important to note is that Burke and Benschop don’t have to give one. That is their modus operandi.

Only Norton from the PNC has publicly endorsed the exhortation of Burke and Benschop. Two central committee members of the PNC – Samuel Sandy and Jermaine Figueira – have rejected the wild advocacy. None of the major names in the PNC’s leadership has offered words of support for the boycott. Why have they chosen not to side with Norton?
Electoral politics is the answer. None of the major race groups has a 51 per cent majority in the population. Indians stand at 41, the Africans at 31.

A party needs 51 per cent for victory. Important to note the census of a country is not reflected in the voting population. Some 41 per cent Indians and 31 per cent Africans do not mean the voting population reflects those percentage points.

The PNC has to get votes from Indians, the mixed race group and Amerindians to get over 51 percent and that is assuming that it gets all the votes from Africans. I doubt that. I think the Irfaan Ali factor will cause the PPP to collect an acceptable percentage of votes from this section of the population.

The election is 18 months away and all parties need to avoid a scandal that will dent cross-over votes. Asking Guyanese in New York to boycott businesses that welcomed President Ali a few weeks ago is self-destructive politics. I cannot believe Norton’s intellectual capacity has diminished so rapidly that he cannot see that the boycott call has racial pandering all over it.
But more importantly, if Norton thinks that by endorsing the foolishness and race-laced advocacy of Burke and Benschop, it is going to cement the African ballots for the PNC in 2025, then how is the PNC going to go over the 51 per cent without cross-over votes? And do those cross-over voters accept that when a Guyanese president visits New York, Guyanese businesses must reject him?

It is clear to me that this is not the intellectually competent Norton I once knew. I think his politics has been joined with the politics of TLF. Self-destruction is on its way

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.