Dear Editor,
I am not that pompous nor am I in any position to say how the PNC should have done things, what should have been or not have been – it is not really my business. But now that their congress is over and done, I take the liberty to share a few thoughts. I do not consider myself naïve, thus I never expected Winston Murray to win the PNC leadership.
Honestly, I do not think – in spite of all that has taken place over the past ‘thousand years’ – that we as a nation, on both sides of the divide, have reached that level of maturity. On the contrary, what has transpired over the years has instead served to perpetuate our distrust of each other. Yes, I’m talking race. And also we have among us those guilty ones/leaders who intend to keep it that way for their own sakes, thus, apart from other considerations, it seems well orchestrated. The overwhelming victory that Mr Corbin got (614 to 223) over his rival paints the picture large and clear that we are in for the long haul. It has indeed set the stage for a known pattern come next elections, for which the PPP will be eternally grateful. I have stated before that one of the big differences between our two main ethnic races is that Africans – intellectuals, middle class, but mainly the masses – have known how to constantly express disagreement and show defiance by open demonstration against their own on the question of right/wrong, justice/injustice, as we saw was done against Burnham’s PNC time and time again.
Indians on the other hand are more tenacious in their support for their own, excepting for a few. But it does seems to me that being flexible as against being rigid is a form of maturity and it is a healthy thing to come to conclusions based on the evidence presented and what appears logical, and to examine carefully the merit of something, taking a principled stand. This is always honourable, although some Africans hold the view that we (Africans) have done so too often to our detriment. And so I wondered to myself, what if only the predominantly black PNC were to take a giant and momentous step by placing an Indian Guyanese at the helm of that party? I imagined what would have been set in motion – the commotion, the repercussions it would have created on the other side, how the entire political landscape would have been affected, and what the political equation would have been like leading up to the next elections.
Could the elevation of Winston Murray as the new leader of the PNC have brought about a new start? However, if such a decision had been taken, it follows that the rank and file would have had to be worked on. But who am I? I do not know the principles by which that party is guided, what it pivots on, and further, in whose interest the order of things was set and why a change was not made. The seven times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong came to mind; he said if you worry about falling off a bike and never mount it, you will never learn to ride. Well just my thoughts, but as someone said to me, “Man, you understand the way the party is structured it hard to get past the leader.”
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
