Dear Editor,
I read that Mr David Granger has accepted a nomination to run for president on the PNCR ticket.
First, let me say that Mr Granger is an extremely intelligent, well-educated and very highly respected and experienced individual in the affairs of Guyana and would make a very good President. However, my experience in marketing is telling me that his decision to run with the PNCR is likely to be regretted over time. The PNCR, like any product which has peaked or has come into disrepute with the consumer, will almost always be impossible to re-launch. The best days of the PNCR are without doubt those under the leadership President Desmond Hoyte.
The target for the PNCR is not the hard-core supporters but those on the fringes and most importantly those dissatisfied PPP supporters who are looking for an alternative. These PPP supporters do not have a good taste in their mouths about the PNCR, and as we all know image is everything. Mr Granger would be better off rethinking his decision as it could do his image more harm than good in the end.
However, having said all that, I wish him well and sincerely believe that if we must live with a two-party system then we must keep switching parties at each election until the right leadership emerges. To continue voting for a single party will always keep us in the dark as to our true potential. In this way, like healthy competition, each party over time will be forced into delivering quality leadership or be shut out.
The PPP/C has been much too long in office and whatever good they have achieved has been dwarfed by their unwillingness to accommodate, try new things and be more open and creative in a way that would make every one of us feel proud to be Guyanese.
If Mr Granger works for getting the PNCR elected then together, Guyana wins.
Go get Goliath, David.
Yours faithfully,
Bernard Ramsay