Former PNCR members Phillip Bynoe and Joseph Hamilton have rebuffed charges by immediate past party leader Robert Corbin that they were ‘wild men’ and levelled accusations of their own about Corbin’s tenure.
Corbin accused the duo of being ‘wild men’, warning members of the party to be wary of their actions and saying that he will reveal more in due course when he would have been relieved of the responsibilities of being the Leader of the PNCR.
He was speaking at the opening of the PNCR’s 17th Biennial Congress at Congress Place on the evening of July 27, 2012. At the time he was still the Leader of the PNCR, a post eventually won by David Granger on the evening of July 29.
“As the struggle continues at Linden, our activists must be aware of and not be misled by those who seek to use the genuine problems of the citizens of Linden to satisfy their own partisan, political agendas or to achieve public recognition.
They must also be warned of and not be misled by, for want of a better phrase, ‘the wild men’ in our midst, some of whom pose as great revolutionaries, when in fact they are agents of the enemy.
While not naming Bynoe, he went on to refer to the storming of the Office of the President on July 3, 2002 which led to deaths of protesters and Bynoe and Mark Benschop being charged with treason. Benschop was incarcerated for five years while on trial and benefited from a presidential pardon in 2007 even though he was never convicted. Bynoe evaded capture during the entire period though there were frequent sightings of him in Region 10. He was pardoned in 2008.
Said Corbin: “The PNCR has had a wealth of experience in these matters. These wild men have sometimes caused the unnecessary deaths of our comrades in various struggles. It is significant that the main mis-leader of the struggle, waged a few years ago for better economic conditions across the country, deliberately violated the agreed plan and took a group of our marchers into the compound of the Office of the President. This led to the deaths of eight of our loyal comrades who erroneously believed that they were carrying out Party instructions. That wild man is equally as guilty for the death of our comrades as those who fired their guns that day. It is that undisciplined act, or more correctly, the premeditated act of an enemy agent”.
“It is known that the PNC never planned to invade the Office of the President that day, but our Party had to bear the consequences of the indisciplined acts of a few. In hindsight, we have to ask ourselves how is it that the main wild man was never captured for five years,” Corbin said.
“During this period he boasted of having direct telephone contact with then President (Bharrat) Jagdeo. We also have to also ask ourselves how this same ‘wild man’ ended up as a candidate and main campaigner in Region 10 for the PPP at the 2011 elections,” pondered Corbin.
“Lindeners should remember that it is this same “wild man” who as a PNCR Member of Parliament voted with the PPP, against his own Party’s position and facilitated the PPP’s sale of the electricity generation facility at Linden to a private company called Texas Ohio. He eventually became its local Chief Executive Officer. He, too, with Sam Hinds must answer for the electricity situation at Linden, which the PNCR warned about since then,” he said.
Turning his attention to another defector from the PNCR, turned member of the PPP/C, Corbin said this person – referring here to Joe Hamilton – knew that there was no such plan from Congress Place. “Yet he sought to create confusion and damage the image of our party at a time when the Party needed unity and solidarity to rally in support of our fallen comrades who had been misled,” Corbin said.
“It was no surprise to me, therefore, as our intelligence had long revealed the truth, that he too like the wild man from Linden ended up being a candidate for the PPP at the last elections and is now a non-voting Member of Parliament for that Party,” Corbin said. “I give only these two examples, as there are many more that I will soon write about when I no longer have the responsibility as Leader of this great Party, to illustrate the point that there are several who shout louder than us that they love and will die for the PNCR and for its many causes, but who, on careful examination, are agents of the enemy. We must judge them not by what they say, but by what they do,” declared Corbin.
But in response, Bynoe said Corbin needs to “cover his disgraced and failed leadership of the PNCR by scape-goating me and others.”
“His stint as leader of the PNCR will go down as the darkest period in the history of the PNCR. He reversed most of the gains achieved by (Forbes) Burnham and (Desmond) Hoyte,” Bynoe said in a response posted on Facebook.
“My conscience is clear and my heart is pure concerning the 2002 struggles and the tragic events of July 3. I have written about these events and will publish at a time of my choosing and no baiting by Corbin will pre-empt me,” he said.
“I supported the PPP at the last elections purely for economic reasons. I felt we needed a five years breathing space to bring economic development to Linden by any means necessary,” said Bynoe.
In a short comment to this newspaper, Hamilton said that it is Corbin who is the wild man. “Those issues he was speaking about…that happened 10 years ago…I condemned those actions. So I don’t know what Corbin is speaking about,” said Hamilton. “If there are to be any wild men it will be Corbin, Bynoe and [Mark] Benschop,” he said.
“I still hold the view that it was madness (the attack on the Office of the President). I still hold the view that Corbin was responsible,” Hamilton said. “I condemn the actions that happened in Linden (shooting to death of protesters on July 18) because it was some of the same characters who were spurred on. Yes, I agree with Corbin that there are wild men. I am making the point that for many of the wild men, he is responsible for their wildness,” said Hamilton of Corbin.
