Dear Editor,
Now that the PNC has had a chance to declare their results from their Congress, the confirmed results were astonishing. Astonishing for the fact that the PNC, although it is in government, has done very little political work to expand its political base. Being in government should have caused an influx of youths, women and non-traditional supporters into its Central Executive Committee (CEC) because a governing party is expected to have more support compared to when it was an opposition party. But when one looks at the new members of the CEC, this is the same old set of senior citizens with a major invasion of the military kind. The table below highlights the changes in the PNC leadership from the 2016 Congress to the 2018 Congress.
The evidence clearly reveals that the PNC, now fronting itself as APNU, is like a political party on another planet. In this day and age, when the millennials are the dominant force in all 10 Regions, you would have expected an expansion in the youthful members on the CEC but the reverse happened.
I personally would like to celebrate the elevation of Volda Lawrence as the first female Chairman of the PNC, but when you drill down you find that the devil is in the details and the details speak to a different reality. In 2016, there were 10 women and 5 youths in that 20-member leadership body. Today, both the women group and youth group lost two places each.
What is even more shocking is that the leadership of the party seems to be getting older and older as the number of seniors in the leadership increased from 10 to 12 between 2016 and 2018. Can you imagine 8% of Guyana is classified as geriatrics but 80% of the PNC leadership are elderly? With no disrespect to my elders, clearly the mix in the PNC does not represent Guyana.
Who lost their seats? James Bond who campaigned hard for Volda Lawrence lost his seat, which translates to the fact that his support was irrelevant to her victory. Then there is the political shocker – Basil Williams. He will have to be co-opted, as the most senior lawyer in the PNC. Joe Harmon has been knocking at the door but it is clear that the PNC members do not trust him.
These results clearly establish that the members do not think Basil Williams or Joe Harmon can be the next leader of the party. However, if we understand the PNC well, what the membership wants is not what they will get because the cabal that controls Congress Place may very well impose a leader on their members to circumvent the member’s choice – Ms Volda Lawrence.
That said, we all as Guyanese must celebrate the fact that Ms Lawrence created history by becoming the first female PNC Chairman; it is a good thing for Guyana that she won. Her victory created a unique challenge for the PPP. My only advice to Ms Lawrence, beware of the political charlatans who are feeding off of your work, they are only there to do two things – undermine your work and advance their own cause.
Yours faithfully,
Alex Duncan
