It would be naïve of the People’s National Congress/Reform to pretend that it can now assume what one might call an ‘as you were’ position following the proceedings at last weekend’s Congress. From all reports, those proceedings included some pretty distasteful, even disturbing episodes, which, whether the country’s main opposition party likes it or not, will do its public image nothing but harm, particularly since it seems that the whole brouhaha amounts to manifestations of an internal power struggle and perhaps even a serious one.
It is of course in the nature of our politics that the internal difficulties of a political party are seized upon by its opponents and the PNCR can bet its bottom dollar that the ruling party, having itself endured its own bouts of public castigation, will go to town on last weekend’s events at Sophia.
In particular the protests from a Linden party contingent and the shutting out and eventual letting in of the protestors would have provided a curious and distasteful sidetrack from the more mundane issues on the Congress agenda. Accordingly, it is altogether unsurprising that sections of the media have already taken aim at the proceedings. Much of the public criticism will resonate long beyond the Congress and in this regard little else can be said than that the party brought this unsavory episode upon itself.
Over the weekend the PNCR demonstrated an unacceptable inability to settle its internal differences with the kind of discipline and civility that ought to attend the conduct of a mature political party, and whether the party likes it or not its own supporters and the electorate as a whole are entitled to raise the question as to whether or not last weekend’s events did anything to make a case for an enhanced quality of governance under an APNU political administration, were that to materialize.
We had been hearing for weeks prior to the Congress that it was likely to be a lively affair. Setting aside what was known to have been sustained rivalry between David Granger and Aubrey Norton, there were rumblings of a likely Linden insurgency, and as it turned out the Vanessa Kissoon issue appears to have been thrown in for good measure. Approaching weekend the decibel level mounted audibly with a delegate to the Congress telling this newspaper that the event was unlikely to pass quietly.
Part of the problem with internal political party polarization is that it tends to evoke strong feelings on all sides. What it also generates is extremist views that exacerbate already awkward situations. There were manifestations of rabble-rousing at Sophia on the weekend that detracted from the seriousness of the event.
What is bothersome is that in the face of all of these obstacles to a smooth Congress the PNCR appeared to have had no mechanism that could arrest or at least contain these various controversies and prevent them from raining on the party’s Congress parade. That is a deeply worrying issue and one which does not speak well for the condition of its organizational engine room. The party would do well to address what appears to be a serious weakness with the utmost alacrity since it is a bad omen as much for the PNCR and its parliamentary coalition as it is for the populace as a whole.
What the events at the Congress certainly made clear is that there are leadership issues, seemingly serious ones, inside the PNCR. We are aware, for example, that there are those within the party that consider Mr Granger to be not the sort of high-spirited and boisterous political leader which they believe that the PNCR needs at this time. On the other hand it has to be said that he has demonstrated through his performance at the leadership polls that he is not without meaningful support within the party.
One suspects that the party faithful would much prefer a cohesive and single-minded organization focused on its substantive political responsibilities rather than that which obtains at this time. What this might take is the creation of a team of party ‘wise men’ to try to settle the various differences, since it is difficult to see either the PNCR or APNU proceeding as though nothing is amiss. Part of that challenge has to do with getting the key party leaders to work together.
Mr Granger, one expects, would have understood from the distasteful events of the weekend that it is he, as party leader, who must provide leadership. That, in this instance, involves bringing what would appear to be an incendiary situation under control as quickly as possible by embarking on – among other things – a serious vigorous fence-mending exercise. It would be an error either to wish the events of the weekend away or to pretend that they never happened. Perhaps more importantly, the party faithful must be under no illusions about its togetherness as an institution and its cohesiveness at the leadership level.
What the PNCR did last weekend was to place itself under a microscope and in the fullness of time it will doubtless feel the keen glare of the attendant scrutiny. It ignores public and supporter reaction to the weekend’s occurrences at its own peril.
