OPINION: The Opposition Leader: a study in abandonment

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 June 2025, 22:51 by Writer

By GHK Lall

From Ms. Amanza to Mr. Aubrey: ‘ah done. Ah gone. It’s over. Bags packed, ticket booked, am on my way.’ It’s the sum of what she said. The sum of what I have to say is, how much more of this can Opposition Leader, Mr. Aubrey Norton weather? The trickle is enough to make teetotalers tipsy. Mr. Norton has said before that he is not worried, he is confident. I wonder what he is going to say now, especially since I study the moves Cde Roysdale may have up his sleeves. Frankly, Mr. Norton’s ship is sailing, but to where and what? Victory over the PPP has been his steady mantra. I have several concerns which are now shared.

First, the disclosures. I have never had the pleasure, nor do I want to, of meeting either Big Doctor Jagdeo, or the other fella. But I have had the courtesy of Aubrey Norton’s time. Thoughtful and helpful, it has been to get his measure. Back then, the expectations were high all around. Today, some of his once close people are running all over. It is not looking good; certainly not strengthening as the clock ticks. The timing is off. The appearance is horrible. The result is alarming. PPP more and more every day, and all the way. I may not vote, but I still need a government of merit, one with clean leadership. Because such is alien to the PPP of today, and getting more remote by the hour, a viable opposition is mandatory. Not just an opposition in name, but a political opposition of substance. Visible substance, and audible and credible substance. This begins and ends with the Opposition Leader. His strengths, his passions, his inspirations that make others willing to charge into machinegun fire and take a hill for him. Instead of those in the PNC manifesting the willingness to do so under Major Norton, more than a few now have displayed the opposite. That is, a clean pair of heels. High heels before, higher heels today; and before both a PNC stalwart who dug in his heels and took some bullets from the PPP for country, people, and the PNC. Today, he is a salesman for the PPP. In Guyana, there are few things that are considered worse. But such are democracy’s drifts and freedoms.

Whatever Mr. Norton may present in the public space, these defections have to hurt. They are a testimony to the confidence (or lack thereof) in his leadership. Style could be one. Essence another. Possibilities still another. This comes with costly baggage for the Opposition Leader. If this is the action, this is the conclusion and movement, of his people on the inside, it doesn’t leave much for his own people on the outside to go on. Every vote counts. But, today, the PPP stands in what I assess to be that Cheshire cat’s position: more votes than cups in which to accommodate them. There is the fullest understanding here that the opposition has little by way of jobs, contracts, cash, duty-free concessions, prime lands to offer its disgruntled and ambitious. Moreover, it has no standing to make charges that may be pending disappear in the closet, and held in reserve for any bad boys or girl, who get ideas of going back to the PNC. But this where a leader has to be at his best, inspire the faltering troops to the glories awaiting.

I point Guyanese to Fidel Castro of Cuba. Before him, there was China’s Mao. What did those empty-handed leaders have to offer their believers? Forget about Winston Churchill and his verbal ‘blood, sweat, and tears, transcendences. What Fidel and Mao had was that strange inner aura known as charisma. A little bit of the old machismo also went a long way. A heavy hand and a steel-tipped boot had their uses. Unfortunately, Aubrey Norton doesn’t measure up too well in those departments. He has gone from a feared street dragon to an all-too-cool diplomat. Some have interpreted that as weakness, a fatal one. Whatever it is, the PNC is losing tonnage under his command. Of course, he has not been helped from day one by his own people in his own party, with whom he ran the streets, reached the rafters. How does a leader succeed, when everyone believes that he or she could be a better leader? Or when past leaders were never sold on him, dug holes in his path? I sensed that he was a man ordained to fight a war with one hand tied behind his back, and one foot attached to one of those ancient PNC cannonballs.

All of this has been to Big Boss Bharrat’s advantage, and he isn’t the kind of chap that allows opportunity to go abegging. Those who say they endorse, have expressed no remorse. What happened to the Colossus that was the PNC? The leadership that was Kim and Vlad and Modi all blended into one? Though he is sure to disagree, all of this has wounded Mr. Norton’s grievously. If not so, then enough to leave the PNC looking like an aged punching bag past its prime.

The only issue remaining is who’s next and when? One more: and into whose loving, welcoming arms they are going.