Latest update May 15th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 11, 2010 Editorial
The announcement that retired Brigadier David Granger has accepted the nomination by a PNC group to be considered as the party’s presidential candidate at the 2011 general elections by its Selection Committee has certainly set tongues wagging.
That bombshell is not such a bad thing for the PNC: in the political arena any and all publicity is usually welcomed. But Brigadier Granger’s entry into that arena has reverberations that go beyond mere sensationalism.
Ever since Mr Robert Corbin, in the face of mounting criticism of his leadership of the PNC from its membership, declared that he would not be the party’s presidential candidate but would retain its leadership, speculation became rife as to who would be that person.
Because it was felt that Mr Corbin’s move was simply a gambit to retain ultimate control, the general consensus was that a cipher would be floated so as not to rock the boat. The groundswell for Mr Corbin’s departure, which continued unabated, has now been halted in its tracks: Mr Granger is no cipher.
It is certainly not the case, as with General Eisenhower in the US back in the 50’s, where a non-party high profile individual is roped in to carry the party on his coattails. Brigadier Granger has been identified with the PNC even when he was a young officer in the GDF.
Selected by Mr Burnham for officer training in England, he was one the new officers that formed the core around which the GDF would be launched in 1965 to replace the ethnically balanced SSU that had been formed the year before by the British Governor.
His progress within the GDF was sure and swift. He was the most vociferous supporter of the PNC’s socialist concept that the army was not a “neutral” institution but must be one that must be ideologically congruent with the ethos of the government.
He was the liaison within the GDF for the political indoctrination of its officer corps. When in 1979 there were rumours that the GDF was being infiltrated, according to the US country report, “In August 1979, Colonel Ulric Pilgrim, the operational force commander, and Colonel Carl Morgan, a battalion commander, were dismissed.
Pilgrim and Morgan had been two of the most popular officers in the GDF. Burnham appointed a PNC loyalist, Colonel David Granger, commander of the GDF.” Brigadier Granger’s PNC’s credentials are impeccable.
The latter claim is buttressed by the fact that he has been part of several PNC retreats in recent years convened to give direction to the party. In fact he was a member of the PNC’s Selection Committee to recommend the Presidential candidate to the Central Executive Committee, and had to resign from it when he accepted the party group’s nomination.
While there has been the accusation hurled that he does not have wide visibility within the PNC’s rank and file, we are not so sure about that. Mr Granger has been consistently and continuously forthcoming on issues of interest to the PNC’s core constituency since his departure from military duties.
He followed up on his QC training to earn degrees in history and performed with distinction in his studies at UG. He was the best graduating student in his “batch”. He was a member of the Disciplined Forces Commission that examined the composition and performance of our Armed Forces. His questioning of presentations was highly professional and it is obvious that the 164 recommendations that were eventually issued by the Commission benefitted from his expertise.
Brigadier Granger is obviously not yet confirmed by the PNC as their presidential candidate but the other parties have to be concerned – especially the AFC. A Granger candidacy at the head of the PNC would most pointedly attract those members that departed to the AFC in 2006.
As Mr Burnham did from 1958 following his party’s defeat at the 1957 elections, Mr Granger has made the consolidation of the PNC’s core constituency his first priority – even as he insists that an ethnic party cannot survive in Guyana. We are in for an interesting few months ahead.
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