Dear Editor,
I get calls from Guyanese around the world and at home all the time. It has been most frequent over the past two weeks. I am unable to address all the questions and concerns thrown my way. There is simply no answer to some of the questions asked.
A young woman who recently graduated from the University of Guyana asked me a troubling question, yesterday. On one hand I was happy to know that young people are still concerned about politics and the direction it is going in Guyana. But I was saddened that I could not proffer a plausible answer to her question. She wanted to know when will our Party hold Congress? My response was that because of concerns about the pandemic, the Party has not made a decision to hold Congress in the foreseeable future. Her response was sharp; a bit too sharp for my liking. It made me feel as if the decision to hold Congress was mine to make.
She asked, with a tint of sarcasm, that if the pandemic is around in 2025, if national elections will be postponed indefinitely? I politely admonished her about her tone before asking her to redirect that question to PNCR General Secretary, Amna Ally and Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon.
“I am asking you because to the best of my knowledge it is you who have consistently made that public call for Congress to be held in the month of April of this year”, she replied. I explained to her that call was made because of the importance of making the Party viable to face elections in 2025.
It broke my heart to hear her utter words of disappointment and anger. “The party knows that therefore it would be a waste of time lending support to anything that is setting itself up to fail from the outset”, she stated.
I am afraid that our supporters will walk away leaving the PPP to have a landslide victory in 2025. It will be a case of Covid and the brittle spirit of our Party leadership that will be responsible for such a defeat. What is most sad is the fact that most of us remain silent in the face of this unfortunate decision or non-decision.
Yours faithfully,
Norman K. Browne
Political activist
