Dear Editor,
As I walked across the Square of the Revolution recently my thoughts were of the PNC. My mind raced back to the days when this party that was founded by Forbes Burnham filled the square with its supporters. I remember the waving palm trees, the lily-white tee shirts and the party theme songs blaring out of the loudspeaker, and then the voices of LFS Burnham and Hugh Desmond Hoyte began to ring in my ears. The message was always the same: “We must work hard to strengthen the party, build national unity, defend the party and remain in the vanguard. I looked around the square and a sense of sadness came over me; a big question came to me and that was, will this square ever be filled again? I said to myself, yes it will. I believe that the People’s National Congress is still strong; the PNC still has a strong support base, but the people are waiting for good leadership.
Mr Robert Corbin is presently the leader of the party and to him we must be very grateful for the contribution he has made to the party and to our dear country. No one can deny that Mr Corbin has served this country faithfully and to him we must say thanks, but the time has come for him to bow out gracefully and allow the PNC to rebuild and strengthen its arms to meet the challenges that we may face ahead of us. It is time for a special congress of the party to elect new leadership that would take us to the next general elections. The time is now for party leaders to begin speaking to supporters of the party; the party leadership must start speaking to new voters and assure them that the PNC is the party that they should vote for come the next general elections in Guyana.
The PNC must identify its presidential candidate now so that the people of this country can become familiar with him or her. The presidential candidate must travel the length and breadth of this country to speak to all the people of Guyana. It’s time to organize and galvanize the supporters of the party and fill the Square of the Revolution again. Time to bring back respect to the PNC.
Yours faithfully,
Clive Fredericks
