THINK of a singer who competes in every competition and doesn’t even bring tenth space. When you ask him why he cannot be even the runner-up, instead of answering the question, as in every interview, he attacks the winners.
That scenario is the identical fit for the outdated trio of Aubrey Norton, David Hinds and Terrence Campbell. Norton entered the 2025 election campaign as PNC’s presidential candidate after failing to secure consensus with the Alliance for Change for an election coalition.
Norton featured two personalities that are living inside a stuck record – David Hinds and Henry Jeffrey. If these two men utter 10 words each hour of the day on politics, nine are centred on race in Guyana. Both men have preached ethnic sermons since 2020. So, Norton figured that they were the right fit for the election campaign.
In the 2025 campaign, Norton featured David Hinds at his side. On the last campaign meeting in his hometown of Plaisance, Norton unleashed Hinds and Jeffrey on the meeting. After the results, friends of Norton, Hinds and Jeffrey began to worry about the mental health of the three men because African Guyanese rejected the race appeal and voted for two Indian men – Irfaan Ali and Azruddin Mohamed.
After September 2025, Norton began to show signs of political Alzheimer’s. Instead of dumping Hinds, he chose him over the deputy leader, Shurwayne Holder and Amerindian stalwart, Mervyn Williams for a parliamentary seat. What Norton did in choosing Hinds was to concede that the PNC was dying and it was best to let Hinds continue with his appeal to basic instincts.
Then Norton became astute. It was a move that was heavily criticised by political society. Most people thought that Terrence Campbell was too new to become parliamentary leader of the PNC group. But Norton knew Campbell more than anyone else in Guyana. Campbell was a clone of Norton and Hinds and even before the ink was dried on his swearing-in document, Campbell became what Norton, Hinds and Jeffrey are.
Campbell shows no interest in learning from the past. His Facebook posts come with the cuss-down mode and he echoes ethnic sentiments like the other two in the triumvirate – Norton and Hinds. But Campbell may be a cut below all other PNC leaders, according to Leonard Craig. In a Facebook post, Craig contends that no previous PNC leader, including Norton, stoops as low as Campbell does.
Campbell has walked into the gutter that no PNC big-wig since 1957 has ever done. What Campbell did in a confrontation with James Bond at Melanie Damishana a few days ago was incredibly vulgar, unbelievably low and precludes him from continuing to represent Guyanese in the National Assembly.
Three morally questions behavioural traits Campbell exhibited. One is that he openly told the National Assembly that he sees his role as fighting for African Guyanese. In a multi-racial society, parliamentarians simply do not use that type of language. It is best left to bottom house meetings and private forums. A parliamentarian’s role is to fight for the rights and the future of all Guyanese.
The second trait is that if not prevented, Campbell would have ended up in a physical exchange with Bond. Campbell is not just a parliamentarian; he is the leader of the PNC parliamentary group. In all circumstances, this is high status that requires public conduct that must be exemplary. There were untold numbers of children on social media that saw what Campbell did.
The third trait I cannot decide if it was more morally wrong than the second one. He called Bond a house-slave which in general politics is common though it is wrong. But it is his second shout that has disqualified Campbell from leading the PNC in Parliament. A senior leader of a reputable parliamentary party does not say those things in public. Such utterances cannot be defended.
Advisers will tell Campbell to apologise but the damage is done. No political leader in modern Guyana has ever descended to that level. No matter how we disagree with our political opponents, if they are parliamentarians, some friendly approach out of respect, must always be there.
Last week, Leonard Craig and I were in Hot and Spicy Restaurant, when Craig showed me Sherod Duncan at the counter, backing us. I shouted out his name in a friendly tone. I had already left the cashier’s line when I noticed delectable salara in the glass case. Parliamentarian Juretha Fernandes was in the line which I could not jump. So, I asked her to buy a salara for me. She refused the money, bought it and said, “Freddie, yuh kyaan say I never did anything for you.”

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.