The demand by some PPP supporters for the PNC to apologise for its misdeeds, or to at least admit that it made mistakes, demonstrates more of a triumph for PPP propaganda than for reality. It is indeed almost a textbook case of “perception” becoming such a huge political reality that perhaps ways must be devised to deal with it if progress is to be made.
It should be noted though, that in the context of electoral politics, the PPP will have no immediate interest in the PNC making a success of any such apology, even if it was mindful to make one. After all, being already a minority government why should the PPP risk losing even the marginal voter who might be tempted to take a PNC apology seriously? For me, the more important and complicated question is can, as some would have it, the PNC and/or Guyana gain from a PNC apology?
Firstly, it is doubtful that an apology would facilitate the PNC tapping into PPP traditional support. The PPP would definitely project such an apology as politically opportunistic, for it is quite clear that a substantial part of the party’s top leadership and constituency rightly believe that wrongdoing has been committed by both the PPP and PNC and should be so addressed. Speaking about the meeting that took place at the home of Mike and Indranie Persaud, Dr. Dolly Hassan claimed that “Beneath his breath Mr. Granger murmured that atrocities were committed by both sides,
