YESTERDAY (Tuesday) morning while preparing for breakfast, my wife yelled out to me, “come and see this.” The egg she burst had two yolks. Before I could concentrate my stare on the double yolk, my cell rang. It was Aubrey Norton.

As we spoke, memories came back of the unlimited political analyses Aubrey and I had over the long decades. I did mention twice in my columns that I found Aubrey to have a fine analytical mind when dissecting the contents of Guyanese society.

It was a civil chat which ended with him saying that he has nothing against me, and I signed off saying that I acknowledge he has some positive qualities and I can be quoted on that. Well, I am informing the Guyanese people now that I said so.
I felt a tinge of sadness after we had finished speaking. I will explain below. Aubrey called to say that my predictions about him have all failed and those I am currently composing will fail too. He said I have shaped my intellectualism to suit my political beliefs.

Why was I sad? Because that was not the Aubrey Norton I have known over the long years with a keen mind in analysing politics. What I witnessed on Tuesday was the disappearance of that mind. It is an inevitability in politics that the intellectual loses the analytical mind when he/she becomes embedded in the pursuit of state power.
Former WPA intellectuals, Drs. Rupert Roopnaraine, Clive Thomas and Maurice Odle were pathetic, miserable and enormous failures when in power. Their stint in state power has destroyed completely the legacy they once enjoyed when they were critical of state power. When they got power themselves, they became abject performers without even an infinitesimal grasp of reality.

That distance that the intellectual brings to the analysis of politics is lost. The politician negates the intellectual and the mind begins to fool the politician. The politician loses touch with reality. The politician sees what he wants to see not what you are showing him.

One lonely Saturday morning, I had a serene chat with President Ali at his home. Ali makes me feel mentally comfortable when speaking to him and the philosophical instincts kick in. I told Ali I admire him, want to see him get elected and would be happy to contribute to that eventuality. But I did say to him that if I care for him, I have to tell him what is inside my crystal ball and how I see it, not how he wants to see it.

I gave him the example of President Forbes Burnham and GuySuCo head, Harold David. Burnham and David would have heated exchanges about the sugar industry and David would be adamant in sticking with his points. Burnham welcomed the courage and independent expressions of David and David remained one of the few persons Burnham appreciated.

President Ali agreed that a leader is better served and successfully too when he/she is offered perspectives that are not self-serving but derived from independent and original way of looking at society, its people and its contents. This is where Ali leads Norton by billions of miles.
I am convinced with that telephonic chat yesterday with Aubrey that he is not living in the real world and surrounds himself with people that simply praise him. I saw a fawning Facebook page in which Dexter Todd wrote that Aubrey is a man that loves all ethnicities.

Aubrey needs some incisive advice on the multi-racial deficit of the PNC under his leadership that has never been so poorly displayed under Burnham, Hoyte and Robert Corbin.
I don’t know if Aubrey is right about my “failed” predictions. My opinion is that I have been right all the time. My prediction of his post 2023 leadership of the PNC has been correct.

As soon as he was elected, I wrote that the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC) would do to him what they did to Corbin. The MCC was brutal with Corbin. They ostracised him, starved him of funds, and formed their own party, the AFC. My prediction about the MCC was right.

My prediction of how the MCC would treat Norton in the 2025 election year came through. The MCC resurrected Nigel Hughes and together with MCC personality, Terrence Campbell, they simply told Aubrey to step side; they will fund the coalition and will run the campaign.

My prediction is that the PNC will lose badly under Norton and he will be replaced. When that happens, Aubrey and I will lime once more at Bam Bam Alley. The only difference is that I still do not drink but will have mauby with black pudding and cook-up rice with him.

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.