I WROTE recently that Terrence Campbell seems to be the de facto leader of the PNC. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Terrence Campbell is being groomed by Aubrey Norton, not the PNC but Aubrey Norton (so much for accountability in the opposition) to become the de jure leader of the PNC.

I also wrote earlier Campbell, as parliamentary leader of the PNC, sooner or later is bound to face prodigious embarrassment over the pronouncements of David Hinds. When a political party has an illogical, irrational, disjointed demagogue like Hinds, then disaster is inevitable. Hinds’ obsession is with race. Hinds sees Guyana as a zero-sum game between Africans and Indians. There is no grey area.

This is in sharp contrast to the pronouncements of Sherod Duncan and Campbell himself. The PNC put out an advertisement introducing their parliamentarians before they were sworn in. Duncan appeared in the frame saying he intends to serve the people of Guyana across the political divide. There were no references to ethnicity.

Campbell announced that he intends to campaign in PPP strongholds and he named two of them: Babu John and Port Mourant. Campbell could be forgiven for separating Babu John and Port Mourant. No one lives in Babu John. It is the cremation site in Port Mourant. I assume that if Campbell is going to campaign in Babu John, it is to speak to the dead.

Port Mourant is predominantly Indian so Campbell sees it as a political obligation to speak to Indian people in PPP districts. Of course, no one will disagree with that intention of Campbell and I doubt anyone would be so foolish to tell Campbell where he can go and cannot go in his country.

But it would appear that Priya Manickchand doesn’t have the same rights to visit places in Guyana like Campbell. Ms. Manickchand in her capacity as Minister of Local Government went to Tiger Bay to ground with the residents. She was photographed with a group of children surrounding her with her arms around some of them.

Here are the words of David Hinds in disparaging the visit of Minister Manickchand: “Go somewhere else and launch your presidential campaign…. Every Black man and Black woman should be offended by that spectacle… Do you think, if I were to go into the ghettos of Bath Settlement or Enmore or wherever and pick up little naked Indian children and hold them up like that… Indian people would not allow me”

There are two dimensions of that puerile and asinine outburst of Hinds that need to be condemned. One is reference to Minister Manickchand’s intention to launch a presidential bid. I doubt that, and if she wants to do so, why five years before an election which is due in 2030? Why Ms. Manickchand cannot engage in political activities in Tiger Bay? To say that she cannot is an admission of political ugliness of the worst kind. Hinds is actually telling Manickchand that she is off-limits in certain parts of her country.

The second dimension is Hinds’ inevitable resort to ethnic lenses. Hinds never fails to insert ethnic meanings in any of his political discussion. Interestingly, Hinds has admitted that I am a very effective societal player because he threatened to sue me for libel over the accusation of racism.

Why me when dozens of persons that have a far greater reach in Guyana than I have, escaped the radar of Hinds? I once wrote that the libel case will be the shortest in Guyana’s legal history. On the opening morning, so much videos of Hinds’ racial stables will be shown to the judge that the judge is bound to say; “I don’t want to see anymore.”

Any PNC politician or African politician from an opposition party can go into any Indian area and pick up children and have photographs taken with them. I am saying with pellucid energy, no one in that Indian village will see something wrong with that. There might be Indian villagers who may not be supporters of the African politician, but in Guyana the courtesy is always there to be given across the political divide.

So, we return to the question about Campbell. How is he going to deal with Hinds? Foolishness is the description that awaits Campbell because if he can go to Port Mourant why is one of his colleagues denying Manickchand her natural right to campaign in her own country?

Of course, the private media is not going to put the question to Campbell. But if the shoe was on the other foot, the PPP politician would have been crucified. It is called insanely hostile, politicised journalism

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.