ONE of the seminal works of Karl Marx, his book Das Kapital, was intended to focus on economic systems and its attending political arrangements. However, we find this work forming core concepts in the study of philosophy.
Marx was able to neatly demonstrate the concept of an intertwinement buried in our economic arrangement that provides explanations for the fundamental nature of social structures, human relations and our understanding of reality.
This intersectional outpouring of Marx brought us the concept of cyclical crises. It generally refers to political behaviour characterised by reactive problem-solving. A cycle where the “solution” of one problem essentially leads to and forms the basis for the next round of problems, preventing true recovery. I wish to extend Marx’s cycle by adding that when crisis spirals downwards, in every successive round there is a form of dystopianism.
This is the story of the Guyanese political opposition in general and the PNC in particular. The historical marker for the current state of the PNC dates back to Charrandas Persaud’s ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ vote in favour of the Motion of No Confidence against the PNC-led government. At that point the world saw that the PNC, at the instinctive and functional levels, was reactive. The events of December 2018 threw the PNC into crisis for which it had no contingencies. We saw an awkward panic in their political messaging, international imaging and the approach to the legal cases that ensued. One comedy of errors after another that provided temporal solutions resulting in delays that, I am sure, was frustrating to the PPP in opposition.
Each round of temporary solution for the PNC provided the platform for more of their endless rounds of troubles and crises. From the unilateral appointment of the GECOM chairman, the failure to hold election within three months of a loss of No Confidence, the seemingly endless legal challenges, misaligned election campaign and transparent attempts to manipulate the election results. All these actions only postponed the inevitability of a loss of government. This epoch can be described as the first wave of crisis.
With the loss of government, the PNC found some traction using phraseology that the PPP/C government was “installed” and not elected. This provided some amount of juicy steaks of political red meat. Initially, this strategy worked for the captive support base. Conventional political wisdom would dictate that the opposition will engage in a deep retrospective and rebuilding process. Instead, a second round of crisis started. An open struggle for party leadership and Leader of Opposition.
When the leadership changed hands from Joe Harmon to Aubrey Norton, it was attended to by executive membership attrition resulting from the most uninspiring, vendetta-laden leadership characterised by friendly fire. Once there was a period of calm the party was again presented with an opportunity to consolidate and rebuild.
Instead of rebuilding, a new period of crisis started with the struggle for leadership at the 2024 party General Congress. A new round of membership attrition occurred. It’s about this time that the PNC began to clutch at straws. In an attempt to find replacement for its lost voices, the PNC pandered to the voices of racial extremism coming from people like Rickford Burke, David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye and others. The PNC surrendered its messaging to social media influencers. Personalities like Mark Benschop, Odessa Primus and Melly Mel became central political opposition voices while those being paid as MPs were either being actively sidelined or not involved in central opposition mandate.
As a result, this period also marked a deep dive into a single message platform, a petulant African deprivation and racism in every social or political act of the government, there was no other tune. To compound and exacerbate the crisis, we witnessed the arrival of Azruddin Mohamed who made an almost immediate stamp on the political consciousness of Guyanese. This PNC crisis worked its way all the way to the 2025 General Elections where it was dishevelled by historically devastating result.
The 2025 elections results, a clear inflection point, as if that was not enough, the PNC hit a new round of crisis. The naming of its list of MPs was mired in controversy together with the embrace of political dystopianism. Despite visible progress and growth in our physical infrastructure and built environment along with decisive policies to advance and improve the daily lives of citizens, all the opposition sees is a society that is degrading, oppressive, and dehumanizing. We have a highly reactive pop-up style opposition. So that if government personalities visit a community, the opposition criticises every act, then they turn around and pop-up and try to replicate.
If the opposition continues with this type of activism, they will make the 2030 election a breeze for the PPP. There are two main things the government has to do to secure the 2030/2031 election with an even bigger majority. The party needs to hold its own membership accountable. When members at the national and local levels misbehave, fail to render quality service to their community they need to be hauled in for fitness.
The message needs to be demonstratively clear; we are a government in service to the people and anyone, whosoever, that detracts from this mission must be made an example. Secondly, the government must sustain and deepen whatever action to ensure African inclusivity both in the party politics and the promotion of economic self-sufficiency.
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.
