Another executive has stepped down from the Guyana Youth and Student Movement (GYSM), citing differences about its current direction.
Thandi McAllister was junior Vice-Chairperson of the National Executive Committee of the GYSM, the youth arm of the main opposition PNCR.
She is the latest executive to leave the movement, amidst long running concerns that it is being used as a political tool by party leader Robert Corbin.
McAllister submitted her resignation late last month, to Niocie Brown, GYSM National Secretary, stating that her decision was made as a result of her growing disappointment with the policies and positions being taken by certain members of the current executive. “These policies and positions are at variance with my own views of how the interests of our young people could be best served,” she added in the letter. “In the circumstances, I can no longer serve on the Executive Committee with any confidence in its practices.”
She also urged the GYSM Executive Committee to return to its core objective which is to promote the welfare and interests of young people who are expected to be responsible citizens and future leaders in the democratic society to which we all aspire.
Stabroek News contacted McAllister, who is the niece of ousted executive James McAllister and she made it clear that her decision had nothing to do with his expulsion from the party.
She said it was pending for a while and she decided to resign before the start of the new year.
Since the last GYSM Biennial Congress in 2007, the National Chairman GYSM Keyno Henry, Vice-Chair Essan Abrams, former Chairperson Chiyedza James and executives Julianne Gaul and Peter Livingstone have all left.
The latter three had been members of Vincent Alexander’s aborted campaign for party leadership at the PNCR’s last Biennial Congress. One of the reasons for Alexander’s withdrawal from the leadership had been concern over the inflated membership of the GYSM during a short period in the run up to the Congress. James, who had expressed concern at the time about the membership, was prevented from contesting for Chairperson at the last GYSM Congress, having been charged with misconduct.
Alexander and his supporters withdrew from all party posts last month, following James McAllister’s recall from the National Assembly.
