Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 24, 2009 Letters
Dear Editor,
The predictable has again happened. Robert Corbin is the elected leader of the PNCR. There are many reasons why Robert triumphed and there are many lessons to be learnt by the Guyanese Nation.
Robert won for several fundamental reasons. Firstly, he outworked all of his opponents. To win any election, preparation is paramount and Robert was far better prepared than his combined opposition. Richard Van West Charles worked hard, but a year is too short a period. Winston Murray was a reluctant challenger, hence his campaign reflected that.
Secondly, Robert knows how to win a PNCR election. His historical memory is much deeper and more grounded in reality than any of his opposition. Years of election campaigning and field work and critical knowledge of key individuals in key constituencies is embedded in his psyche.
Thirdly, the opposition pursued the wrong strategy because they identified the wrong problem. The opposition made Robert Corbin the problem when the real problem was PNCR rebirth and renewal. Instead of calling for a new political architecture, namely shared governance in the Party, the opposition wrongfully concentrated on winning a Westminster election. The reality is that the PNCR has no public and international credibility calling for “shared governance” when the party’s political structure is Westminster based. Had the opposition defined the right problem, their approach would have been fundamentally different. Robert would probably still have still won the most delegates, regardless of the integrity of the voters list, but the Party would have then allowed him a dignified exit as he has clearly said he would not be the PNCR’s Presidential candidate at the next General Elections. Hence Robert would be Leader, the Presidential candidate would be someone else and a new approach to internal partnership politics and rebuilding would have been possible. Healing instead of rift, renewal instead of destruction, and teamwork instead of competition would have been made easier.
Fourthly, the opponents of Robert Corbin refuse to acknowledge a “basic reality” in their thinking. Robert Corbin regardless of what anyone thinks of him has served the PNCR for over 40 years. He is currently the elected Leader of the Opposition which has prestige and financial benefits. Were he to be defeated or were he to step down as Leader of the PNC, having him remain as Leader of the Opposition until 2011 would have been common sense. With “shared governance” architecture within the Party, decisions in Parliament could have been team decisions made by the “internal Leadership Council” including Richard Van West Charles and Winston Murray.
Fifthly, Robert Corbin won the battle of ideas. This may seem strange but it is true. Why? Corbin’s opposition brought no new ideas to the table. Ideas about renewal; ideas about a new approach to politics; ideas about alliances that would strengthen the Party; alliances that would result in electoral victory for the Nation in 2011, and Most importantly, there were no new ideas about Party financial viability, revitalization and constituency prosperity.
Finally, Robert Corbin won because Guyanese are still unwilling to accept that the Westminster system will produce a particular type of politician and a particular type of politics. Westminster politics is not about servant leadership it is about serving the needs of politicians and political parties. When a President is above the law, executive criminality is nurtured and rewarded. Minister Ramsammy, who is the Minister of Health would never sign a document to facilitate the purchase of the now famous “spy equipment” for a criminal organisation and for extra-judicial killings without the knowledge of the President who can claim ‘Executive” immunity. This basic flaw in our Constitution has led us down this path of state criminality that is abhorred by all countries in the West.
The PPP will most likely win the next general elections because its ethnic constituency does not see the Roger Khan state criminality as a reason for voting them out. The PPP has also been nurturing the Amerindian community to become mendicants and totally dependent on them. The PPP has carefully and methodically nurtured communities in Diamond, Tuschen and seven other communities in a successful attempt at creating security zones for their ethnic followers, while shifting the demographics of the Nation. In Local government, the PPP is strategically using the powers of Minister Lall to gain permanent control of many PNCR controlled NDC’s. Through political and government patronage, the PPP is also able to get votes from the opposition constituency because they believe the PPP cannot be defeated electorally and “man got to live”. Finally, having destroyed Union solidarity against repression of rights, with Pastors who are MPs or who lead the ERC, the Christian Church is now under attack as the PPP sees many Indian voters now becoming Christians and it is a worry.
Guyana can only move forward and heal if there is a Government of National Unity led by a team of non-politicians and servant leadership politicians.
For PNC supporters, this is not a time for despair and hopelessness.
The lessons learned in this recent election should help you to understand your current ‘realities’. There is still a “Destiny to Mould’ in Guyana and supporters of the PNCR still have a major role to play in the attainment of human rights, good governance, racial harmony and economic growth in Guyana.
As Emancipation month comes to an end, we are still not free of the shackles of “mental slavery”. We still worship our colonizers. We have adopted their political system. A system that was used to enslave us and to make us indentured servants. We have not learnt the lessons of history. The system they created was to “divide and rule” us.
We are a morally lost Nation in which extrajudicial killings (like in slavery), torture (roughing up), racism, marginalisation, victimization and criminality of the social, cultural and political genres are status quo.
In the mimicry of an alien Westminster political system, we have lost our humanity morality and intelligence. We have become “noble savages” in an ignoble political system.
This is not what our ancestors want or died for. We have become the living dead and are proud of it, as we explain the Roger Khan criminality and moral absurdity.
Eric Phillips
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