TERRENCE Campbell has started his political entry in a safe mode. He only gives interviews to safe interviewers. People do not know but about two and a half years ago, I invited Campbell on the Freddie Kissoon Show but he declined. Now that he is the parliamentary leader of ANPU, he has a standing invitation.
I hope he appears and stops hiding behind safe interviewers. The most senior PNC person at the moment in the PNC executive outside of Aubrey Norton himself is Ganesh Mahipaul. Campbell needs to take a leaf of Mahipaul’s book. Mahipaul does not shy away from hard interviews. He told me recently that he is coming on the Freddie Kissoon Show once again to clarify a few things.
The person who needs to clarify more than a few things is Campbell. I start with the handshake scandal. I have a taped interview with Jermaine Figueira which Campbell must watch. It has not been aired so I cannot hand Campbell the entire tape. I am only going to disclose two items on that tape so Campbell could see what type of political leader Norton is.
Figueira explained that he got a call from Norton after it was made public that he (Figueira) shook the President’s hand.
Figueira said Norton told him, “Yuh know how I feel about this handshake thing.” Norton then went to tell Figueira: “You know I could move you as parliamentarian.”
Figueira answered in the affirmative when asked if he was removed by Norton as a shadow minister because of the handshake.
The second disclosure is Figueira’s psychological portrait of Norton of which only a part of that disclosure will be disclosed here. Figueira when asked that as things began to deteriorate badly inside the PNC why he and Norton couldn’t meet and talk about the issues, replied: “Norton does not listen to anyone.”
All Guyanese must demand that Terrence Campbell answer this question. If he will not, then we must persist. In every column on Campbell, I will demand he answer that absorbing question. Will Campbell tell the nation if his policy is not to shake the hand of the President when they meet.
And meet they will next year when there are the Emancipation festivities in the National Park; when there is Phagwah next there; when there are Independence celebrations next year. When the two men are in the same space and the President extends his hand, will Campbell respond and shake the President’s hand?
That space is coming up soon when Parliament is convened. President Ali will be there to greet the newly sworn in parliamentarians and then is when we will know what Campbell is made of.
I don’t suppose Campbell will respond to me. But others who think that with Campbell’s new leadership role in parliament, the PNC is on a new embarkation as spelt out by Campbell himself, must ask him to answer the question. I repeat it here for emphasis. When they meet, will Campbell shake the President’s hand?
I believe every Guyanese, in and out of the land, is curious to know what is Campbell’s position on the shake-hand thing. Here is my take. Campbell is living between the Devil and the raging tides of the mighty Atlantic. If he accepts that the policy of the PNC under his parliamentary role is not to shake the President’s hand, then Campbell’s career is over.
The refusal of any parliamentarian from the opposition not to shake the President’s hand is an asinine blunder that the people of Guyana find too stupid and infantile and lacking in decorum. Norton lost the respect of untold thousands when he declined to shake the President’s hand on two occasions and victimised Figueira for so doing.
If Campbell shakes the president’s hand at the opening of parliament and any other national occasion coming up, then Norton is going to remonstrate with him and there is going to be recriminations.
I suggest Campbell, a newcomer to politics, needs to listen to Figueira’s analysis of the psychology and politics of Norton of an unreleased edition of the Freddie Kissoon Show. It will be an experience for Campbell.
Campbell hasn’t got a scintilla of knowledge of who Norton is. I don’t think he knows the man. I am putting it to Campbell that if he shakes the President’s hand, Norton will interpret that as a personal affront and there is going to be a battle for survival, but then again, Campbell may follow the example of Sharma Solomon who obeyed Norton’s edict and did not shake the President’s hand. Campbell may “follow de leadah” an old anthem of the PNC.
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