It is as if the current leadership of the PNCR is trapped in a proverbial time warp, far removed from the current realities. It does not respond to present-day circumstances, because it has enveloped itself in the cocoon of an outmoded mindset which has its own perverted logic. So Mr Corbin maintains in all seriousness that bringing Mayor Hamilton Green onto the Central Executive Committee demonstrates that the party is capable of reconciliation, while the majority of the electorate sees it as a return to the old PNC. And Mr Corbin denies that there were irregularities in the internal voting processes of the party, while the majority of the electorate sees it as shades of 1970s-style rigging. Mr Corbin finds no problem with what was said to Mr Mervyn Williams at a party meeting, while the majority of the electorate sees it as indicating that the PNC speaks only to its traditional ethnic support base.
Perhaps of all the things which have happened in recent times, the one which has done the most damage to both Mr Corbin and the PNCR is the incident involving Mr Mervyn Williams, who resigned as chairman of the party’s Region Three Regional Committee after what he described as “offensive” and “discriminatory” comments about the PNC being an African Guyanese party for which African Guyanese vote. The member who made the remark went on to suggest that since Mr Williams – an Amerindian – was not an African Guyanese he could not relate to African Guyanese issues, and recommended an early election for a new regional executive. There are wild cards in every party, but the problem was that Mr Corbin who was present made no attempt to reproach the person, or set forth an alternative vision of what the PNCR was all about, and just what its constituency should be. As such, therefore, his silence conveyed accord with the sentiments expressed.
If one extrapolates from the data in the last census, the Indian vote – approximately 43.5% of the total – in and of itself is insufficient to put the PPP/C in office. Freedom House has been only too aware of that fact for a long time, and relies primarily on the addition of the Amerindian vote to provide its majority at election time. Other weightier arguments aside, at a practical level alienating the small Amerindian constituency the PNCR still retains is almost certainly political suicide for the main opposition. Clearly some inkling of what might be at stake if the PNC lost non-African supporters percolated through eventually to the Leader, because at last Saturday’s Biennial Congress, old party stalwart Cammie Ramsaroop was elected Chairman, and Reform member, Mr George Norton, a Vice-Chairman on Mr Corbin’s recommendation. Their nominations probably came in response to the challenge posed by the group headed by Mr Winston Murray, whose members were promoting an altogether more expansive and all-encompassing vision of what the PNCR should be. However, the election of Messrs Ramsaroop and Norton is too little and comes too late to reverse the damage done to the main opposition and its leader.
And Mr Corbin still is not taking on board the allegations of electoral irregularities both en route to Congress and at Congress itself. Of all the parties which need to project an image of absolutely spotless internal elections, the PNC leads the pack by far. Its history will automatically raise suspicions, and even if the claims of fraud had had little substance, it would have been in the interest of the party leadership to go out of their way to demonstrate that everything was above board. The perception of rigging alone will do untold damage, even without the actual flaws, which as it was, were painfully obvious to many. Given what has happened, the PNCR has only succeeded in further undermining its credibility when addressing electoral issues at a national level, and in fact even when it seeks to criticize the government in other departments, such as on the matter of the rule of law. A party which is perceived by the public to be dishonest, inevitably will have a much diminished voice on the political stage.
Many observers have commented on the fact that the members who have left the PNCR during Mr Corbin’s tenure, or who have been driven out or who have distanced themselves from the party, tend to belong to its intellectual wing. In any political party these are the people who will usually generate the ideas, articulate a vision and imbue the rank and file with a sense of purpose. Mr Corbin’s various challengers have been articulating a vision, but there has been no corresponding effort on the part of the incumbent PNCR leadership. There has been plenty criticism of the government, but no one really knows what the PNCR now stands for, what its policies on anything at all might be and what alternative it represents from the PPP/C. All the voters can see from the outside is an entity existing in the past, led by those whose thinking comes from the past and whom the world has passed by. Cementing that perception now is the addition of Mr Green to the complement.
Mr Corbin has been a long-serving member of the PNC, whose past contribution has been recognized by many in the party. Having said that however, the last election was a disaster for the party, since so many of its traditional supporters did not even bother to vote, and a significant proportion of those who did, put their ‘x’ next to the symbol of a brand new party. One might have thought, therefore, that a leader of Mr Corbin’s undoubted experience would have understood that a catastrophe on that scale required him to take responsibility for the loss, and pass the baton. It seems, however, that he did not, and he presented himself for election at two subsequent Biennial Congresses – the second of which was held last week and which he won again.
Not only did he not feel it incumbent on himself to resign, but he appears to believe that what the party needs is more of the same formula which caused it to fail previously. It is either evidence of stunning political naïvete, an inability to understand causation, or an indifference to whether the party wins or loses. If it is the latter, he must be one of the few leaders on the planet who do not have winning an election as a primary goal.
Given the inability of himself and the upper echelon of his party to adapt, it may be that Mr Corbin will wake up the morning after the 2011 results are announced, and find that the PNCR is unable to command the status of main opposition any longer, or fill the post of Leader of the Opposition. It will have been reduced to a minor player in the political game.