Indentureship Indian Heritage Month May 05

By Analyst

Georgetown — As predicted, Robert Corbin, who was appointed Interim Leader of the PNC after the passing of Desmond Hoyte last December, was elected as the new Leader at the party’s special Congress on February 1st, 2003. The lone challenger, Artie Ricknauth, was badly trounced managing to get only 85 of the 831 votes cast.

Corbin is a political animal and, although only fifty-five, he has over three decades of service to the PNC in a wide variety of roles. He breaks the mould of the previous two leaders of the PNC – lawyers Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte. Even though Corbin qualified as a lawyer late in life (in1992 at the age of 44), he does not have the solid Georgetown middle-class credentials of his predecessors, and it shows.

Corbin hails from the Linden area where he earned his spurs as a youth leader who became Chairman of the Young Socialist Movement (YSM) during the heyday of the socialist thrust in the seventies.

The YSM was never a song and dance fraternity but was regarded as an integral component of Burnham’s drive to “mould” the Guyanese people into a disciplined force at his command. The YSM, under Corbin was heavily militarized as well as heavily indoctrinated in party paramountcy. Hoyte, by contrast, was a bureaucrat, removed from such exhortations and activities in the field. The YSM was a vanguard organization that was given arms and training, which placed its leaders at the forefront of the political fray of the seventies. Several of its members are now top officers in the GDF — contemporaries of the new Leader who would have had intimate dealings with them.

Corbin, in addition to being the leader, has retained the chairmanship of the PNC and is thus in a structurally more secure position than his predecessors. His Deputy Chairman, Vincent Alexander is a graduate of the YSM.

With the ascent of Corbin one can now safely say that the Burnhamites are back. The moderate wing of Trotman, Bernard, etc. all were visibly downplayed. Corbin was exposed to the Burnham touch from boyhood. His formative experience as a sixteen- year old youth would have been the pogrom at Wismar May 24th -25th 1964, when two Indians and one African were killed, dozen of Indian women raped and thousands of Indians made homeless. This assault broke the back of the PPP and led to the resignation of Home Affairs Minister Janet Jagan, who complained bitterly that the army (Volunteer Force) and police merely stood idly by when the atrocities were being committed.

How different is President Jagdeo’s recent criticism of the army at Buxton?

Corbin was the man in charge of the electoral machinery during the PNC’s regime and also the person in charge of “rigging.” Both Burnham and Hoyte (1985) would have been very grateful to him for his services.

Corbin held several portfolios under Hoyte, the most famous (or infamous) being his tenure at the Public Utilities when the “barge scam” to end blackouts took place. Accused of rape at one point when he was a deputy P.M., he was cleared by an investigation initiated by Hoyte who had suspended him, and thereafter reinstated him. Many unsavory stories continued to be circulated around his personality. Corbin maneuvered deftly and not only survived Hoyte’s purges of the PNC after 1985, but actually improved his standing.

Hoyte never appeared to be totally comfortable with the person of Corbin who remained loyal to the Leader for the trusted henchman he was. Corbin’s most crucial choice came at the showdown between Hoyte and Green in 1992, when he sided with Hoyte and confounded those who felt that his temperament was more suited to Green. Corbin, however, displayed his political astuteness: his tough image and street smarts would be more valuable to Hoyte; Green would be more likely to view him as a competitor.

In his two public pronouncements as leader of the PNC- at the Congress and then later at the Square of the Revolution, Corbin has not made any pronouncements to indicate any new direction under his leadership. As expected he reiterated his commitment to the Hoyte’s legacy but one has to take note of the crucial caveats. Firstly, he announced that there would be “no dialogue” with the PPP. “Dialogue,” he said, “was between Hoyte and Jagdeo.” He would like “talk” but these would have to be constructive engagements. He is signaling therefore, that he would take a harder line towards demanding concessions from the PPP than Hoyte did. He said clearly that he would have to deliver to his constituency.

If Hoyte’s response to being stymied was “mo-fire” and “slow fire” one can only guess at Corbin’s.

On Hoyte’s last proposal of Shared Governance , Corbin also signaled a tougher stand. He claimed that since the PPP, through Jagdeo, had signaled their rejection of the concept, the PNC would have to win the next election and then implement their ideas on Shared Governance. He therefore gave the charge clearly to the PNC that they had to do everything to win the next elections. The stage is therefore set for even more confrontational politics .

There was some hope that Corbin, with nothing to prove in the “toughness” department, may have been the person who could make the historic break with the old politics and reach across to some accommodation with Indians and the PPP. The early signs have extinguished such hopes. Guyanese are in for a war of attrition in politics. And the stage is already set.