The PNC should go with Moses Nagamootoo
January 21, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon, Source - Kaieteur News
Election Day is May 11. It is up to the PNC now. Guyana is in the hands of the PNC. My understanding is that some big figures in the Guyanese society are talking to the leadership of the PNC about a grand coalition for the election, with Moses Nagamootoo as the coalition’s presidential candidate.
The historiographical explanations of the PNC by Guyanese East Indians and the PPP have been unkind to the PNC. While it cannot and must not be denied that Forbes Burnham had an inexplicable and tragic obsession with power (we are paying for his 1980 Constitution at the moment), the PNC under both Burnham and Hoyte did phenomenally good things for this country.
I would not insult myself by even mentioning one of them. Generations of Guyanese know about these fantastic accomplishments. Desmond Hoyte was one of the world’s most decent heads of government. Against this background, the PNC deserves to be back in government. There are some who say that the PNC still has untrustworthy people. Trust me! There are untrustworthy people all over Guyana.
It has been a long time since the PNC lost power. And even the PNC itself cannot recover from what it has seen from the PPP. PNC leaders tell me all the time; “Y’all seh de PNC was bad; what you call to what the PPP is doing?”
There isn’t one person who was in the WPA and is alive today that has recovered from the mental wound that has afflicted them from what they have seen the PPP become.
Guyanese, no matter how learned, cannot believe what they have seen and are seeing from the PPP Government. It has reached the point where if this country is going to survive for another five years, the PPP has to leave office.
Today, the PNC stands at the crossroads. If it loses the 2015 elections, that would be six consecutive losses. And I would include another PPP minority government as a PNC loss. It is difficult to see a bright future for the PNC after a defeat this year.
If the PPP wins a plurality and becomes a minority government again, it will not share office with the PNC or the AFC. It is wishful thinking on the part of both parties to think that the PPP will do so.
The PPP will persevere with minority authority, but make concessions to the PNC and AFC parliamentary agenda. If the PNC is going to be back in government, then the PNC has to win a majority or win the plurality, and if the AFC wins the plurality, I believe it will invite the PNC to share office.
In 2015, the PNC would have been out of power for twenty-three years. Its best opportunity of returning to rule this country, to show Guyanese that it can be a competent and nationalist government as it was from 1968 to 1992, is in the forthcoming general elections. But for the PNC to return to government, the strategy it uses will determine its fate.
The PNC should enter into a grand coalition with the AFC and other forces, making the contest a two-person race – the PPP versus the coalition. I believe the coalition will get a majority. The victory will depend on how the PNC strategizes. I am suggesting the PNC accept Moses Nagamootoo as the coalition’s presidential candidate.
Two historical factors would have been born if the coalition wins. One is the party that the PPP loved to malign and the party that East Indians loved to hate is now given the opportunity to shut the mouth of the world. Secondly, it marks the end of a glorious career for Moses Nagamootoo in which he reached the apogee – he became the president of his country.
Moses Nagamootoo deserves that. It should not be denied him.
The PNC stands to create history by making that historical concession to him. I sincerely feel that Moses will be a caring president who will accept that the PNC has the support of half of this nation and that the PNC made his presidency possible, and the PNC must make policies for Guyana. I cannot foresee a PNC problem with a Nagamootoo presidency.
If there is a grand coalition, I would urge the coalition leaders to talk to Ralph Ramkarran. I have had my quarrels with Mr. Ramkarran, but I would not deny that his support would greatly enhance the chances of the coalition and the AFC, should the AFC choose to go it alone. There needs to be a figure like Ramkarran to talk to East Indians to tell them to come from the shadows and into the modern world.
