THE RIGHT TO BE WRONG

September 24, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source - Kaieteur News

It was indeed the height of irony that under the leadership of Robert Corbin, the PNCR lost significant electoral support. In the 2006 General Elections, the PNCR, under Corbin’s leadership, only managed to acquire 33% of the total votes cast. It was a dismal performance by the party.

This was the irony because if there was any leader that understood the weakness of the PPP and how to exploit this weakness it was Robert Corbin. He remains the most astute political leader in the PNCR. He had seen right through the mistakes of Desmond Hoyte. Instead of taking the fight to the PPP, he adopted a different and more pragmatic approach.  His approach was that the PNCR did not need to do anything to the PPP; it would self-destruct.

And this is exactly what happened in 2011. The PNCR did not need to take the fight to the PPP. The PPP imploded of its own accord and for the first time since 1992 was unable to secure a parliamentary majority. The PNCR did not need to do anything to cause the PPP to lose seats. The PPP lost those seats because of what it did on its own without any pressure from the opposition.

All the opposition parties in Guyana have to do is step off the pressure pedal and the PPP will crumble. This is all they need to do in Guyana. Once they take the fight to the PPPC, once they begin street protests, the PPP’s mistakes will be overlooked by their supporters who will rally to their party’s side.

The PPP is falling apart. But it has not yet fallen apart. It has not fallen apart because for the past three years the opposition has been taking the fight and frustrating the PPP government. The PPP has skillfully exploited this belligerence on the part of the opposition parties. It has used it to galvanize its supporters. These supporters blame the opposition parties for frustrating development and therefore they overlook the wrongs of the PPP.

The problem with the PPP is that it has now reached the stage where it feels that it has the right to be wrong. The PPP continues to fall to pieces but it has not yet fallen fully apart because it has been able to point its supporters towards a common enemy, the joint parliamentary opposition.

The opposition parties in turn are not doing themselves any favours. Why in the midst of this self-implosion by the PPP did the opposition parties decide that they will move towards a no-confidence motion? The PPP will use this to tell its supporters that it is under siege. The supporters will then rally behind the PPP because they will see the opposition trying to unseat the PPP through the no-confidence vote.

They will also look and see a hapless opposition.

Now what sort of protest is being launched by APNU? Since when does a political party choose to picket the home of the President? A man’s home is his castle. The opposition has no right going to picket a man’s home. It is not something that Guyanese people support. It is wrong and detestable. It is a new development over the past decade which the PNCR has developed. It has caused much chagrin.

But the protest was also comical. How can you hope to gain the attention of the President when you are picketing his home at a time when he is out of the country? What sort of opposition party pickets a man when the man is not around?

The opposition parties are acting prematurely. The PPP is falling apart but is not yet in a heap. It will get there in due course. All the opposition parties have to do is to do nothing. The PPP will fall completely apart by the time general and regional elections are due in two years. The PPP will self-destruct. And the opposition parties will then have their best chance of winning the elections.

They will not do so if elections are called before two years, because the supporters will feel cheated that their government was not allowed to serve its full term. They will blame the opposition parties for shortening the term of the PPP and they will vote the PPP back into power.

Source - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....e-right-to-be-wrong/