Only one other leader had what David Granger has
Denis Chabrol contacted me and put to me a number of questions on the announcement of Aubrey Norton’s contesting the leadership of the PNC. After reading Mr. Chabrol’s publications of my answers, to which I have no objection, on Demerara Waves, I have been in receipt of many questions to clarify my position as given to Demerara Waves on Mr. Granger’s performance.
The Demerara Waves piece quoted me as saying that the PNC needs its leader to be angry. I stand by that statement. I went on to tell Mr. Chabrol that I think Mr. Granger would make an excellent president, but there are line-faults in his leadership, and one of those is that in the context of Guyanese politics, Mr. Granger should be an angry opposition leader.
I didn’t clarify for Chabrol what I meant by anger, an explanation of which formed the reason for writing this column. When he was engaged in academia prior to being a full-time politician, I know what was inside the mind of Granger, the scholar. Many persons that I share a friendly relationship with told me Granger, as a nationalist, spoke with them on the discrimination that was taking place against African Guyanese, among other political depravities by the PPP.
One evening, a few years back, I was at a social gathering or what in Guyanese parlance is called a lime, in Beterverwagting, with sports journalists, Edison Jefford and Rawle Welch. A very prominent citizen told the three of us that he would like to see a paper I offered at the annual meeting of the Guyana Historical and Research Society on class decay and class formation in Guyana, because Mr. Granger told him that he accepted the concepts, theories and premises of that presentation.
It is outside the scope of this column to discuss the contents of that paper, but it looked at the death of the traditional post-colonial middle class under the PPP Government and the birth of two other classes, one of which emerged out of the unorthodox economy. The other was created by the Jagdeoite state using state patronage.
I argued that both of these new classes offer serious patronage and protection to the PPP Government.
What the Guyanese people and the world at large need to know is that outside of Walter Rodney, leader of the Working People’s Alliance, no other leader of an influential, powerful political party has had the type of formal training in Guyanese historical sociology and political history as David Granger.
We could go down the list of those who headed an influential party. Jagan – dentist; Burnham – lawyer; John Carter – lawyer; Balram Singh Rai – lawyer; D’Aguiar – businessman; Roopnaraine/Thomas/Kwayana – none of the three were historians; Moses Bhagwan – lawyer; Paul Tennnassee – trade unionist; Llewellyn John – lawyer; Gunraj Kumar – lawyer; Manzoor Nadir – small businessman; Nanda Gopaul – trade unionist; Hamilton Green – politician; Hoyte – lawyer; Trotman – lawyer; Ramjattan –lawyer; Mrs. Jagan – politician; Robert Corbin – lawyer; Jagdeo/Ramotar/Rohee – politicians.
Only Walter Rodney had more exposure, both at the University and research levels, than David Granger in the study and writing of the history of Guyana’s ethnic sociology and contemporary Guyanese history. Mr. Granger is the co-editor of a volume titled, “Themes in African History.” My point is if there is a leader of a penetrating political party, other than Walter Rodney, that has studied Guyana’s problems in its history of ethnicity, political divide and evolution of its political economy, it would be David Granger.
I now come to what I meant by anger. I was driving with my wife and mother-in-law, when Mr. Chabrol called me for a comment, so I pulled over on a parapet in Campbellville and offered a very brief response. I should have said “militant,” “confrontational’ and “aggressive.” Although I think the word, “angry” is appropriate, those other adjectives would be more contextual.
Given his academic and research background, I feel Mr. Granger lacks the anger that should go into an opposition leader given the dangerous levels of authoritarian power Guyana has gone through from 2006 onwards. Even if the society is sheepish, the level of degenerative power is so extensive that a leader of almost half of the population does not have the latitude to be a mainstream opposition leader.
Perhaps the greatest test facing Mr. Granger is the local government elections. The PPP made a name for itself by denouncing rigged elections and is currently using the Rodney Commission to continue that trend. Yet the PPP refuses to even hold the second most important national election.
Surely, Mr. Granger and his party should not allow the PPP to deny Guyanese what the PNC under Hoyte gave the nation – free elections.
