What happened yesterday was a disgrace. It was a disgrace for the country, but most of all it was a disgrace for the PNC/R. How is one to take any party seriously which refuses to play by the constitutional rules, and whose sole political tactic is disruption. Has the PNC learned no lessons since 1992? Does it have no clue whatever about the international climate and what is possible and what is not? Has it no respect for the visiting foreign heads of government? And has it no respect for itself as a political entity?
Mr Robert Corbin, the Chairman of the PNC/R and the acting leader of the party will no doubt claim that he had nothing to do with the break-away group under Mr Philip Bynoe which took itself off to the Office of the President yesterday. But if he does, he will be dissembling. Insofar as the PNC/R was a part of the march, and insofar as it was at best clearly unable to control it, and insofar as violence and criminal behaviour have accompanied the vast majority of previous PNC protest actions, then the sole responsibility for what transpired must be laid at the door of the party.
It may be true that the police made some mistakes. It could be that it was not the wisest of decisions for them to allow the march into the city at all. However, in their defence, they were probably trying to keep trouble as far away from the Ocean View Hotel as possible. Once in the city, they were clearly unprepared for the group which de-linked itself from the mainstream marchers and converged on the President's office. One must presume that the force did not consider the possibility that the OP would have been a target at that time.
It must be said, however, that whatever the police shortcomings may have been, they are simply not the point. The point is the decisions, the approach and the actions of the PNC/R in the current conditions. Yes, it is true that the Government is incompetent. Yes, it is true that it is frustrating negotiating with them. Yes it is true that they are weak. Yes, it is true that their cumbersome collective leadership system makes them indecisive in some circumstances and obdurate in others. Yes, it is true that they have no inkling of the extent of the alienation of many Africans. Yes it is true that they have an indifferent grasp of protocols. Yes, it is true that they have made every blunder in the book since February 23. But does that justify the PNC/R doing what it did yesterday? Absolutely, unequivocally not.
Of course, we might anticipate that there will be anger in some quarters about the shootings which took place inside the Office of the President. But let us be clear. Those who hold the ultimate responsibility for that are not the guards who fired on the people rampaging in the offices, and not even the Government; there is no way the rioters could have been allowed either to trash or burn down the complex. No, those who hold the ultimate moral responsibility for the deaths and injuries are the ones who sent the victims into the building in the first place.
And in case this is just an hors d'oeuvre before the entree, let us repeat a warning which has been given before in these columns. There are now a number of international instruments committing nations to democratic practices, and making possible intervention by outside powers in situations where elected governments have been removed extra-constitutionally.
The Inter-American Democracy Charter is the most recent such instrument in this hemisphere, but it is not the only one. Prior to that there was the Santiago Declaration of 1991, which required the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to consult with one another about restoring democratic governments which had been overthrown in coups. It will be recalled that it was under the umbrella of this declaration that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was re-instated in Haiti.
Guyana is small in population and economically minuscule, and the donor nations have invested too much capital in democracy here to allow it to be washed away in a flood of hostility and irrationality. The PNC/R has to take a decision and take it quickly. It has to decide what is achievable in the current circumstances and how that can in fact best be legitimately obtained. (It can forget about getting the Government to resign; before that would ever happen, it would be too late because we would already be hurtling into the void.)
It may be that we need more radical changes to the framework of the state, or it may be that for the moment the PNC/R feels that we need some heavyweight foreign mediation when negotiating with the Government. Whatever the case, the party has to call a halt now to its traditional tactics, evolve a new philosophy, and cut loose all those who will not work within the constitutional framework of the state.
The PNC is the only mass organization the Africans have in this country and it cannot treat that responsibility lightly. Based on the last election, it also represents 42 per cent of the electorate. At the very least, therefore, it owes its constituents honesty. It owes its constituents realistic assessments. It owes its constituents a vision - a true vision, not a chimera. It owes its constituents the promise of working to improve their lot by legal means. It owes its constituents hope - genuine hope, not false hope based on violence. It owes its constituents the employment of all its intellectual skills in the furtherance of their interests. And it owes its constituents (as well as all other Guyanese) a peaceful future.
What the PNC/R decides to do now, will not only determine the future of the rest of us, but will also determine its future as a political party.