THE Hamilton Green story in Guyana is as old as the sea, so one is amused that Aubrey Norton and Sherod Duncan refused to learn the lessons of history. I interviewed Green at his home in 2017 for my Kaieteur News column and he explained that he was never considered to succeed Burnham because the middle class in the PNC thought he was too much of a street man to become president.
What Green did not say was that all the middle-class big wigs in the PNC, including Burnham himself and Dr. Ptolemy Reid, did not see him as presidential material even though he had full autonomy to do what he wanted and he did just that. But the line that Green could not cross because he was prevented from crossing it was to become the President.

Burnham wanted someone from the middle class genre to succeed him. And Green was never considered by Burnham. There is an interesting story about how Burnham saw the middle class in his party. The man Burnham put in charge of Burnham’ socialist thrust was Elvin Mc David. Burnham actually put McDavid in charge of effecting the socialist transformation of the country.

McDavid did not appreciate Desmond Hoyte occupying the position of economic development minister because Mc David was convinced that Hoyte was an unapologetic embracer of capitalist economics. So he wrote a memo to Burnham requesting Hoyte’s dismissal.
Burnham died shortly afterwards and Hoyte became President. McDavid rushed to the President’s office to retrieve the memo but was refused access to confidential files and Hoyte found the document and got rid of Mc David from his government and the PNC. The point about this story is that despite Mc David’s colossal influence over Burnham, he could not get Burnham to move against the anti-socialist leaders, middle class persons in the upper tiers of government because Burnham was happy with the middle class in his government.
After earning the name of street fighter in the PNC, Norton had to know the scope for moving upwards was inherently stacked against such personalities. People do not want street fighters and political entertainers to become president. Norton had experience to fall back on. Three examples stood out. Mark Benschop. People saw Benschop as a violent street man and not a credible politician.
Benschop formed his own party, named it after him, and contested the 2015 election. He was so embarrassed by the 100 votes he got, he left Guyana permanently. Guyanese saw CN Sharma as entertainment but Sharma thought of himself as an impressive politician and

formed a political party and contested elections. His vote was the same number as Benschop’s.
Then there was Corbin. Despite qualifying as a lawyer, the middle class in Guyana and inside the PNC could not see Corbin as anything but the bully boy that grew up in the PNC. They rejected him as PNC leader and frowned on him contesting the presidency of Guyana. Corbin knew that the PNC could only survive if he stepped down and give way to a middle class personality. He did exactly that in 2011.

Norton secured the leadership of the party but continued to behave the only way he knew – the street boy bully. He is known to be a nightly visitor to a drinking den named Bam Bam alley on Orange Walk by Bourda Market. With huge hemorrhaging from the party, Norton’s days were numbered because two credible middle-class names were contending for the leadership and would have won if the congressional voting last month were not arranged in Norton’s favour.
Come 2025, the PNC is going to lose several seats and Norton will fall the way of Corbin. A middle-class cadre will replace him. Then there is the story of Sherod Duncan. The inner AFC middle-class circle was alarmed at Duncan, nicknamed the bellman because on his social media programme he entertains his viewers by ringing a bell, wanting to become the leader of the AFC. They liked Duncan for his bully boy ranting and bell-ringing entertainment but refused to allow him to become the head of a quintessential middle class party.
With the disgrace of Norton and the ignominious fall of Duncan, could Guyana see the movement away from party street fighters trying to become party leaders and seeking the presidency of Guyana? My own take is that after the formidable challenge Amanza Walton-Desir and Roysdale Forde put up to become PNC leader and the leash the AFC put on Duncan, we will not in a long time see such people moving out of the trenches and seeking to be on the top of the pyramid.
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.