We all have to admit that the PNC's tenure from 1964 to 1992 was really friggin terrible by any measure. We can point to some instances of competence or what not but largely it was pretty awful.
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Correction. It was hell between 1978 and 1990. Guyana was in a good place before then, and Hoyte blocked the Jagan communists from turning Guyana into Cuba. Had Cheddi directly replaces Jagan look at Cuba and see what Guyana would have been today. In fact Guyana would have been worse, given that it started at a more backward place to begin with.
I don't wanna quibble over how bad the PNC truly was or wasn't or what the PPP would have done in office during that period. You're probably right about the PPP and their fanatical commitment to communism. But we'll never know.
Let me more direct then. PNC rule from 1968 to 1992 was flatly illegitimate. Their rule was further tainted by some truly insane policies; some driven by socialism, others driven by race.
I'm sure you and I can analyze specific period of PNC rule and specific policies but my point is simply that the PNC (rightfully) is blamed for screwing up Guyana during those years as the Party in power. The inquiry for our purposes here is at an end. The ordinary voter (especially the Indian voter) will is simply gonna do what all voters around the globe do and just blame the whole party for all the ills of the era. Made worse by the fact that the PNC's rule was racial to racist. Again I don't wanna argue the point. I point to it just for an explanation of what the PNC is up against in 2015 and why pointing out banned food under the PNC's rule is successful. It reminds people of the low depths it sank ordinary people to. Ordinary people became smugglers of dhall and sardine. That's friggin insane for the average person to contemplate. And of course it doesn't help that it was done by the "Black people's party" during an era of Black minority rule over a then Indian-majority nation.