Conversation Tree

HAPPY NEW YEAR

On this first day of the New Year I wish my readers, the readers of SN and all Guyanese, a joyful day and a successful 2022. In the new year we should give some thought to the thirty percent of Guyanese who live below the poverty line and about thirty percent of those who live in extreme poverty, as well as the many foreigners entering our country seeking refuge from economic and other circumstances. Outside of these groups, a large number of Guyanese struggle every day to ensure that food is on the table. It should be our nation’s first priority in the new year to ensure that life is made better for these disadvantaged groups. Guyana now has sufficient resources, and will soon acquire more, to make an immediate, positive, impact on the lives of those in difficult circumstances. Despite the disputes and differences of opinion among us on many things, few would challenge any priority being given to alleviate the conditions of the distressed.

ODD MAN IN

Aubrey Norton, newly elected leader of the PNCR is only ‘odd’ in the sense that he survived at or near the leadership of the PNCR for near thirty years, despite falling out with all the leaders under whom he served – Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin and David Granger. I know of no one else in Guyana’s politics who has managed such a feat. Because of the opacity of the PNCR’s politics, about which I remarked last week, the reasons for Mr. Norton’s failure to sustain the support of PNCR’s leaders are not known. The only certainty appears to be that he fought for his positions, made no compromises, prepared himself for the hits and took them courageously on the chin.

HARMON, NORTON OR VAN WEST CHARLES?(in alphabetical order)

It is not a simple matter to write about the PNCR. Leaders are forever reluctant to talk to outsiders about internal party matters even when they are aware that the outsiders can be trusted not to reveal confidences. Serious journalists and columnists are not interested in disclosing information, but they are interested in making informed analyses. Information not readily available to the public enables them to do so. And so I begin this two-part series on the PNCR, a party with whose internal dynamics I am not familiar, at a disadvantage, having to rely solely on public information. I am not certain that the PPP is much different. Since I left that party in 2012, very few senior members with valuable analytical ability are willing to concede any valuable information.

JAGAN SPOKE THE TRUTH ABOUT POVERTY AND SOUGHT TO END IT

On Wednesday December 8, SN published two letters by Professor Tarron Khemraj and Dr Baytoram Ramkarack with the following headlines: “We cannot fully explore US strategy towards Jagan without considering how deep Jagan was embedded in the Soviet orbit” and “Soviet style Marxism-Leninism became like a religious conviction for Jagan and led to catastrophic repercussions for the country.” Although many readers may have now become bored by this discussion, the headlines, which reflect the contents of the letters, do not tell the full stories behind US intervention in Guyana and in many other countries during the Cold War era.

‘HE NEVER REALLY LEFT THE PLANTATION’

Dr. Baytoram Ramharack is a leading protagonist of the view, held by a section of educated Indian Guyanese opinion, that Cheddi Jagan was a plantation idiot. This view is argued with singular clarity in much of Professor Clem Seecharran book, ‘Sweetening Bitter Sugar’ (2005), ostensibly about the life and times of Jock Campbell. While Professor Seecharan did not quote Lloyd Searwar, Dr. Ramharak boldly articulates Searwar’s view, adopted as the headline of this article. This characterization of Jagan is the origin and basis of the racist tropes levelled at him by political opponents for most of his life.