Preying on the dead for political gain has its own category of despicable.
And the suggestion of ‘it is what he –Robert Corbin– would have wanted’, by reflecting on past conversations, smells like undisguised opportunism.
There may have been many points of mutual agreement. But with the chasm that exists between the two entities, erstwhile recollection affirms previous intent–talk no action.
And it’s not just that VP Jagdeo has found saving grace in befriending his political foil, the PNC, when Mr. Corbin’s eulogizing should have been the feature commentary, in customary deference to the deceased.
It’s that it comes too close to, yet, another arrest, by Jagdeo’s government, of the Opposition Leader, Mohamed, whose political Party, WIN, presents a challenge to the PPP that cannot, seemingly, be contained.
And more curious is that the overture of Jagdeo’s postmortem requiem comes when his Ruling Party – PPP–is directly threatened by the populous overtures to the newly minted Opposition WIN.
He may be leveraging the tragedy of the passing of the former Leader to stabilize his power.
Word is, they are still absorbing the shock of the newest political Party’s – WIN– ascent to its place as current Opposition Leader.
The populist clamor that catapulted this entity to this position and displaced the traditional Opposition, PNC, is still rippling through the prior two-party construct.
And with the comparative silence from the once formidable PNC, displaced by the new comer, fears of sabotage within have taken to new height.
The demoted Opposition’s Leader, Aubrey Norton, is already deemed anathema to what is the Party’s known ideology political purpose.
Within his ranks are the voices of freedom fighters who are uncharacteristically quiet, amidst a wooing by an adversary that has a five decade record of luring and reneging.
With these militaristic voices now silent or silenced, there’s warranted speculation that the sell-out is afoot. Norton, trounced, diminished and degraded, contemplating liquidating the legacy of the Party’s founding land, may be both vengeful and spiteful.
And this brings us to why the ruling Party, through Jagdeo, may find overtures to this bitter operative rewarding.
For a politician to have an epiphany at the funeral of a nemesis is the grammar of political survival. Proselytizing –the political version–at the grave site, is a cunning immorality aimed at those who are cunning and immoral.
Norton’s manipulations around stepping down, in spite of his legendary defeat, by weaponizing his title to keep his MP’s in line, is the currency of graveside contracts.
But we are reticent to think that the lone militant, Hinds, would be submissive to this leader. His bona fides are etched in his academic and political portfolios. His current Leader’s relevance may now be dependent on how much of the African political foot print he, Hinds, is willing to trade for a pound of flesh…the continued piracy of the PNC.
And, a little more.
Militant Hinds is the guy with the institutional authority. His attachment to the undying memory of freedom fighter Rodney is a legacy he has to protect. This wades in to his castigation of Afro Guyanese whom he deems insufficiently dedicated.
His plethora of Afro name calling is now legendary as is castigation of Afro commitment to “voting black”. And this brings us back to the voice of the Vice President/ Party’s General Secretary overture of “political cooperation“.
Wrapped in a hypocritical post-mortem requiem with an unsubtle implication of its service to both houses, is the tell.
The geometry of the double-sided overture, resurrecting traditional alliance to PNC being the known Opponent, signals a deep awareness of their shared vulnerability.
It’s not even coded gangster talk. It’s plain, direct, and anxious. We’re both uniquely vulnerable. You’ve already tasted the might of the newcomer.
Your house has collapsed from the surge for change. Mine could be next….even if the voter list has some creative accounting …then where would we be if/when this happens?
The principle of like minds. Hand over the keys to your fractured organization and I’ll offer you a lifeline of state patronage and/or protection… we’re considering.
And we’re contemplating this because of the fliers of unity that have been generated by the supporters of the PNC who lobbied tirelessly for the Leader who was a predictable loser.
Their desperation for some sort of reformation, redemption, reads like the Aesop Fable version of the two Parties.
From their genesis through their nemeses, the deliberate stagnation and relegation of Black Guyanese, because of political antagonism, are unbudgeable cornerstones of Guyana’s political history.
From refusing to “shake the hands of his oppressors” to rubbing cheeks, is the juxtaposition of haughtiness and humiliation facing each other off, after irredeemable defeat.
And the social media cheerleaders lulled into a sense of unreality, as if disregarding their lot under the VP and Opposition Leader, may have descended into that psychological balm of cope and hope.
It’s almost like the aesthetic management of a sell -out because we’re hearing nothing from Party members and current politicians on this proposed marriage with an unrewarding dowry.
Are they going to fold the historic PNC into a quasi Opposition and tarnish the character that earned it the recipient of the Order of National Independence from colonialism?
Or will they stand up like the Founders who pushed on through every upheaval to build the Party that they inherited as a viable operating entity?
This single historical moment will determine the caliber of the Party’s current politicians and the core of their convictions.
They’ve already acquiesced to the tyranny within…Norton’s squatting and shifting elections to extend his calloused tenure.
And the militant member has proven that he is better directing his tirades to his constituents but cowers to his autocratic leader…now so far in to decomposition that he is prey for political vultures.
