FORMER soldier and elected PNC Chairman of Region Four, Daniel Seeram, has gone over to the PPP. The PNC has lost Geeta Chandan. Former Mayor, Ubraj Narine, is still a card-bearing member of the PNC, but read and listen to what he says and writes; it is as if he is gone from the PNC.

Based on a confidential statement made to me by Narine, I cannot see Narine working with Norton.
Norton made no attempt to reconcile with Mursaline Faiz, former Treasurer of the PNC. Norton made no attempt to reconcile with Amna Ally before she died.
But Norton has welcomed an election alliance with the WPA, which is basically a three-man party of David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye and Kidackie Amsterdam. The last two are on incitement charges within the context of race.

Hinds’ racial sermons have no parallel in the history of the three multi-racial countries in CARICOM – Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname. No human on Planet Earth listening to and watching Hinds thinks he belongs to modern politics. But Norton has teamed up with Hinds.

Hear the words of Norton when Seeram left the PNC last week, “I am not worried. Our party base is strong.” But the base of a party cannot be strong for two reasons – if it keeps losing its pivotal leaders, and secondly, if it does not pursue multi-racial directions.

Commonsensical politics is that, firstly, the PPP needs to show Guyana that as a party with majority Indian leadership, it has embraced African Guyanese from different social classes. Secondly, the PNC has to prove to Guyana that as a party with majority African leadership, it has attracted important Indian cadres.

And lastly, new parties must attract multi-racial constituencies if they are going to be worthwhile third parties and by multi-racial, it is meant different ethnicities, not just Africans and Indians.
Of these three directions, the PPP has done superbly. Now, you can say that it has the national purse to do it, but the fact is, purse or no purse, it has been endorsed by a school of well-known African social and political actors.

Purse or no purse, that is a huge political reality as Guyana goes into the national election. Of these three directions, small parties are trying their best to build multi-racial platforms.
Against this backdrop, the PNC has faltered and “badly” is a mild adverb.

The PNC needs Ubraj Narine, Geeta Chandan and Daniel Seeram more than it needs David Hinds. For Norton to adopt a nonchalant attitude to the exodus of high-profile Indians and welcome Hinds indicates that either he is a political dunce, not acquainted with modern Guyanese politics, or has lost his marbles.

David Hinds cannot bring in votes in September to the PNC. It is silly to think he can, because commonsensical pathways run into the millions. A pro-capitalist party does not need to hunt for business to get plenty of seats in Parliament. It is a pro-business party, so it will get the votes of the bourgeoisie. This happened in the early 1960s with Peter D’Aguiar and his party, the United Force (UF).
D’Aguiar needed the Amerindian votes to secure substantial seats in Parliament and he did it. Burnham wanted to weaken the PPP as an opposition party, so he stole Indians from the UF and the PPP and brought in high-profile Indians into his Cabinet, of whom Sir Shridath Ramphal and Mohamed Shahabuddeen stood out.

The PNC will get the same amount of votes that it traditionally gets without David Hinds and Tacuma Ogunseye.
In fact, these two bizarre men could cost the PNC the votes of two sets of Africans – young, decent Africans who grew up in an environment that doesn’t know about the race card and decent, African, educated, middle-class Guyanese who think Hinds is wacko.

On the contrary, Seeram, Narine, and Chandan could bring in votes that Hinds will find it impossible to do.
Now, the reality is, Guyana doesn’t know how much, if any, votes these Indians will bring to the PNC, but sociologically and culturally there is the colossal possibility that they could secure votes for the PNC, while Hinds cannot.

Thus, the logical question to Norton is: why are you in a hurry to embrace Hinds and not reconcile with those Indians?
Now, there is a supposition. Suppose Norton is afraid to tell Hinds that the WPA is a non-existent entity and that there is no need for an alliance because Hinds may cuss him down and the PNC will lose votes.
I am contending that cannot happen. If Norton chooses not to team up with Hinds and Hinds cusses him down, it will not affect the traditional votes the PNC will get.

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.