…Gearing for battle
Granger’s been the leader of the PNC since 2011. But, as your Eyewitness has been emphasising since then, he didn’t come through the ranks of the party’s institutional gauntlet: he’s an army man. So, he’s more than a tad amused at all the hullabaloo being made by some, including James Bond – the purse carrier of Volda Lawrence – about the latter not being consulted on the decision not to have her return to Parliament! He claims that as the Chairman of the PNC, she ought to’ve been given that courtesy. Courtesy? From Granger’s perspective, Bond totally misses the point: do generals consult captains when you’re going into battle?? Absolutely not!! And this is the essential fact all of those PNCites who were excluded from the next Parliament by Granger better get into their heads. Granger has been nothing than a military officer ever since he returned from Mons as a 20-year-old 2nd Lieutenant in 1965 – and remained one till 1990.
Does anyone in the PNC or outside think they can change his stripes after those 45 years?? Similarly, all the criticism about him being “aloof” and “withdrawn” during his presidency also ignored the man’s orientation.
The other point to note, however, is that while folks like Volda Lawrence and Aubrey Norton might think the PNC party’s the real guardian of Burnham’s legacy, Granger thinks otherwise. He’s still bitter about the PNC having men like Desmond Hoyte, who he (and Hamilton Green) see as a traitor to the “founder-leader’s” vision. He’s the purist and keeper of Burnham’s flame, and by golly, he ain’t about to let anyone “mould the destiny” of the PNC, much less Guyana!!
A week ago, in his piece, “Granger’s coup in the PNC”, your Eyewitness predicted what unfolded and is unfolding right now in the PNC. In his “night of the long knives” Granger decapitated the entire old guard in one fell swoop, using Desmond Hoyte’s 1985 ploy of “bringing in new and young blood”! But more pertinently, like Hoyte, Granger wants to clean up the image of the PNC. After Volda’s vulgar performances: when she led that charge to seize Red House, and later her cuss down at Ashmin’s in front of the diplomatic corps, did she really believe Granger would ever see her as “fit and proper” to lead the PNC to the promised land??
Just as pertinent, from Granger’s perspective of course, is that Volda has a following on the ground. Generals must be able to count on the troops when they give the order to “Charge!!”
Granger also comes from that class that would use the ghetto elements tactically, but strategically insist they know their place.
Which is in the trenches!
…with the AFC
Granger’s moves, however, are full of contradiction. If he wants the PNC to be seen as a “kinder, gentler” party by dumping the ghetto elements from the leadership tier, unless he’s totally succumbing to his “league of coloured people” class prejudices, he’d also be hoping to attract other ethnicities – mainly Indians, Amerindians and Mixed – to vote for the PNC. After all, he knows it’s a demographic certainty the PNC can’t win on its own.
But if so, why give one third of the seats to the AFC, which have been totally discredited in those communities because of their obsequiousness since 2015?? The AFC’s Dead Meat, and of no value to the future prospects of the PNC. The suggestion’s been raised, however, that Granger might be hoping history might repeat itself, and some of the PNC rejects, like Bond, might float a new “multi-racial” party a la the AFC of 2005.
Unfortunately, there are no young disaffected PPPites like Ramjattan to wean away disaffected voters from the PPP. Granger’s been checkmated!
…and the elections petition
Is Granger still going to file the elections petition?? During Bond’s public meltdown, he blamed “Granger’s weak leadership for the PNC’s loss in the elections”.
Can’t really rectify weak leadership via an elections petition, can you??
