Latest update July 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column
Kaieteur News – Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton must remake his image. This must have meaning for his own supporters first: they must be given reason to believe, to cling to whatever tendrils of it they could find, hold on for all they are worth. But Mr. Norton has to reconfigure himself first. From my perspective, Mr. Norton’s challenge then grows more difficult. Arrayed in front of him is a resourceful, relentless, and remorseless PPP machine.
He must convince the PPP’s disillusioned and disgruntled that he is the man for the times. The leader that is part of a group that holds out the probability of a better alternative. My thinking is that the Opposition Leader has lots of things going for him. There is a PPP Government that is self-destructing. A man, a leader, a group is only permitted to deal in lies for so long. Simple people, honest people, and expectant people see through them; Guyanese see them for who and what they are. This is to Mr. Norton’s considerable advantage. He has for his primary opponents some people who have no use for honesty, who lack for principles, and who have surrendered personal honour. Even more unforgiving is that they have wasted the goodwill of the Guyanese people and spat and trampled on their hopes. It is a cultivatable field in front of the Opposition Leader. Man, I would have loved to be in the thick of that combination of circumstances. But I am just beginning.
Because of its skullduggeries and with secrecies to match, the PPP as a government and as a party is vulnerable. Its leaders and ministers, most of them, have done their jobs well. In the departments of what is not credible, what is to be distrusted, what is self-enriching. If anyone said corruptions like never seen, like never to be imagined (even when seen) then is the PPP Government that has become a swindler of aspirations, a set of rogues that rip apart the poor and poverty stricken of Guyana. For every building they put up, they put up a bank for themselves. This is why the field of political competition is not just open, it is filled with twists and detours, plenty of other tricky conditions also. This is where the Opposition Leader can come into his own, exploit the arena.
He has to radicalize his approach. But within bounds, manifest a thicker skin, represent tougher postures. Oil and gas have been the bugbear and bogeyman of my good friends Drs. Ali and Jagdeo. Sad to say, their diagnoses and prescriptions with this prized endowment, this huge responsibility, have all made Guyanese sicker and weaker. This is where Mr. Norton as Leader of the Opposition, and as a true Guyanese man of sturdy temperament and robust presence, must differentiate himself. In the frankest terms, my good friend Mr. Norton has sounded and registered too much like my two other close friends, the incomparable Ali and Jagdeo. Cheddi and Linden they are not; they couldn’t hold a candle to the memory of that old line Guyanese capitalist, Peter D’aguiar. I shall affix to myself the temerity to advise an erudite adviser to Excellency Ali to advise the big bossman of how capitalism really works. He was there, he knows. He must be holding his nose.
This is where Mr. Norton has to take his stand. Indeed, he has spoken of cost-of-living brutalities inflicted on Guyanese by the policies of the chief policymaker, and the chief imitator and follower. Cost-of-living pains are acute and chronic; they don’t stop, don’t go away. His weekly pronouncements must become a bible proselytized by the minute, a daily battering ram. The PPP is a machine, Mr. Norton must bend his back and rise to be a stronger, better one. Exxon is hauling away 645,000 barrels of oil daily (maybe more [by submarine], by other subterfuges). This patrimony cannot be a piece of his weekly hour but must emerge from his depths to let Exxon know that the pain of Guyanese is his pain too. This must be the cornerstone and centerpiece of his strength and strategy. If not, then I submit that Aubrey Norton is inseparable from Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo. I am sorry, but that is the worst curse that I can attach to any man, any Guyanese. I hope that Mr. Norton still regards me as a Guyanese, and not some Venezuelan (or American) saboteur. He could distinguish himself from the Ali-Jagdeo duet with that alone.
When Guyanese are ripe for running over, the opposition cannot be run of the mill. When Drs. Ali and Jagdeo are running scared (Babu Jaan), Mr. Norton has the slightest of openings to run to front (Guyanese lingo). He cannot be squeamish. Nor should he be focused on the stylish. It is unbecoming. It is good that he has left the boorish to the two PPP strongmen. He must distance himself from the foolish, which has come to identify the others. Mr. Norton is known as a battler. He has both to live down that and live up to that in that the old is gone, and a new kind of battler for Guyanese arrives. Straight talking; he does not do too well with circling. Tough talk: he is not good at the kind and gentle. Guyanese yearn for a warrior. Both Ali and Jagdeo have fled from the field of oil combat. One spoke of superpower adversary; the other spoke of who spooks easily. They both frikken Yankee phantom and Yankee jumbie. So, what will it be, Mr. Norton? There will never be a grander opportunity to rise and roam. Do not depreciate self. Differentiate self. Do not herniate self. Substantiate self.
This writing is presented as a public service to all Guyanese. At risk to myself, I have tried to share ideas with brothers Ali, Jagdeo and, once again, brother Norton for better for Guyana. Their ways have yielded little. It goes without saying, that I am not an [the] enemy.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)
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