On December 22, 2002 the country was stunned by the death of late PNCR leader, Desmond Hoyte. Hoyte's death even surprised then chairman now leader of the party Robert Corbin, who always knew he was a breath away from the leadership of the party.
The PNCR's constitution provides that if a leader dies the chairman takes over the leadership of the party for a three-month period until the party elects a new leader, a fact Corbin was aware of when he was elected to the post of chairman at the party's congress in August 2001. As a result he said he was always prepared to take on the responsibility whenever the need arose.
Nevertheless, Corbin told Current Affairs in an exclusive interview that he was shocked by Hoyte's passing as he had seen him only the day before and he looked better than he had on previous occasions. He explained that there were a few times since the August 2001 congress "that I was concerned for the way he [Hoyte] looked and his heavy schedule at time when I thought he should be taking it easy."
But, he observed that the last occasion on which "I saw him he looked a lot better and I thought he was going to last much longer."
"We [the PNCR executive] had taken a decision that we should try to ease him of his schedule, so that he could work a little less, but in his own style he still maintained what I believed was too hectic a schedule for a man who had been suffering from the kind of heart problems he had and diabetes. Perhaps he had been pushing himself a little too hard because I believe he was very deeply concerned about the state of Guyana and more particularly, the difficulties which many of his supporters were experiencing at the time. I believe he was somehow demoralised by the fact that his strenuous efforts had not yielded the kind of results he expected."
Supriya Singh
With leadership thrust upon him somewhat unexpectedly, Corbin, who had only a few years before qualified as a lawyer, said that he was a little disappointed at having to shelve his ambition of pursuing a career in the law "as I had hoped to pursue a very vigorous stint in the legal profession."
"Naturally the new responsibilities have overshadowed my legal work. But I suppose one has to make decisions at some point which require personal sacrifice in the interest of the party that I have been in all my life and because I believe that the demands of making Guyana a better place are greater than my personal satisfaction."
Family reaction
Corbin is married and has four grown children, one of whom is Fidelia, the youngest of the four and senior to him as a lawyer. His family has been very supportive, especially Carol, his wife of eighteen years, whom he describes as a solid rock of support and who "has been a source of tremendous help and support to me without which support I would not have been able to function as well as I do." He said that other members of the family both in and out of Guyana have always been of some support "in helping me to make the kind of sacrifice I have been making."
He admits though that it was initially difficult for his immediate family who had been accustomed all their lives to his involvement in public life. His assumption of the leadership of the PNCR was thrust upon him at a time when he had been moving in the direction of minimising that involvement.
About the reaction of Fidelia, described as his baby by his close associates, Corbin says that he has so far been unable to extract from her the way she really feels because his children want to be of support to him. Fidelia has just completed a Master's degree in international trade law at King's College, University of London, which she attended on a Chevening scholarship she was awarded last year.
"Even if she feels that way I don't think she would discourage me from what I am doing. That is the beauty of my children. They may disagree but they wouldn't try to re-direct my course of action because that is the way I have raised them too."
He explained that he did not try to dictate to them the way they should live their lives. "I set an example. I have opened opportunities for them and I believe they should choose the road they want to go. I have not really imposed my will on them and I suspect there has been mutual respect and reciprocity in that regard."
The challenges of leading the party in the post-Hoyte era
(1) Seamless transition of leadership
Commenting on the challenges that he has had to face since assuming the leadership of the party, Corbin said that the first was to complete a smooth transition from old leadership to the new one as Hoyte was interested in a seamless transition. He said that he has successfully completed that task and that the party now has a leadership team as distinct from a leader. "I believe I have a team of competent individuals who are all very enthusiastic and committed to Guyana and with the responsibilities that they have been given I believe that they are eager to work with me as a team so that the goals can be achieved."
Some members of the leadership which includes people residing in and outside of Guyana are Clarissa Riehl, Dr George Norton, Supriya Singh, Stanley Ming, Jerome Khan, Basil Williams, Amna Ally, Vaulda Lawrence, Raphael Trotman, Deborah Backer, Winston Murray and Muntaz Ally.
Corbin said too that his team of advisers persons residing overseas and in Guyana and that some of those overseas hold very senior positions. He said that a number of them would like to return to Guyana but would be unable to earn a living if they do since these days it is considered treasonable not to be a member of the PPP.
Commenting on the importance of the seamless transition from Hoyte's leadership to his, Corbin explained that it was something Hoyte was concerned about. He was concerned "that the party should shift from his leadership into a new leadership team without any rancour or conflict that would compromise the party's task of trying to create a better way of life for the people of Guyana."
He said that when Hoyte spoke of a seamless transition he was thinking, "of giving up the leadership even before the last Congress and to be present while the new leadership team took over the party."
However, he said, "As the congress got closer I believe he was persuaded to hold on a little longer because of the state of the country at the time, the faltering of the dialogue process with Jagdeo and the government's intransigence in implementing decisions taken in the dialogue process, the parlous state of the economy which verged on collapsing and the crime and security situation which had gotten out of control."
As a consequence Corbin said that he believed that Hoyte felt that to give up the leadership at time might have been interpreted as though he was abandoning the ship while it was in difficult waters.
(2) Rebuilding and re-organising the party
His second challenge Corbin said was the task of rebuilding and re-organising the party and he had carefully outlined what had to be done in his speech to the Special Congress in February at which he was elected leader. This task, he said, required restructuring of the party group at the grass-roots level, implementing effective educational and other programmes and building "an all inclusive party which could reflect the social, cultural and ethnic mix of Guyana."
He conceded that this task is not yet completed, as there is much to be done and it is a challenge which still the party still faces. "It is not a short-term task; it is a continuous one. Hopefully with the members of parliament who have been assigned special responsibilities for the regions, the members of the executive who are zoned in various areas and a number of the party's organisations that have been re-established in the various regions, we would be in a position at the beginning of 2004 to accelerate this programme.
"We intend to aggressively pursue membership across the racial and ethnic divide to make it even more evident that the party is inclusive."
Corbin explained that the party's membership has always been multi-racial from the earliest days, pointing out after the split in the PPP in 1955, among the people with Forbes Burnham in the PPP "Burnhamite faction" was Dr J P Lachmansingh who was an executive member of the British Guiana East Indian Association.
Corbin said that the PNC's objective has been to bridge the racial divide and bring all the people together. "It was a thrust which Forbes Burnham held dear and while many criticised him for various reasons, I do not think that he can be faulted for trying to reach out to make this party all inclusive."
He added: "You just have to look objectively at the people whom he brought close to him during his period as party leader and as President [of Guyana] - Dr J P Lachmansingh, Eugene Correia, Seeram Prashad, Gowkarran Sharma, Deonarine Sharma, Surujnaraine Singh. At the governmental level you had [Sonny] Ramphal, [Dr Mohamed] Shahabuddeen, Salahuddin, and Steve Naraine [who was to become treasurer of the PNC]. Building a united party and country was always part of the PNC's programme."
However, Corbin explained that "unfortunately during that period there were forces in Guyana which felt that was not in the best interest of some partisan group and whenever the PNC moved to cross significantly across the racial barriers, there were significant campaigns arranged to either weaken or destroy those Indian supporters who dared to join the PNC and frighten others who wanted to cross those barriers."
Corbin recalled that all of Surujnarine Singh's property on the Corentyne was destroyed by fire. At the time Singh was the regional chairman of Region 6 [East Berbice/Corentyne]. Ramphal, Corbin said, was maligned nationally and internationally but fortunately seems to have come back into their good books recently. "Every significant Indian that appeared to be crossing those barriers was either maligned or attacked or accused of selling out Indians by vested forces which have worked continuously to keep the races apart for political reasons."
He said the policy of reaching out continued under Hoyte to the extent that he was nicknamed "Desmond Persaud." However, Corbin explained that because of the pressures of the economic problems of Guyana "Hoyte as leader of the party had to devote more time to state affairs between 1985-1992 and to some extent the party suffered slightly in terms of strengthening its organisation because he was concentrating on Guyana's economy."
Corbin said that Hoyte too, by his own approach, embraced the necessity and before his death had gone to the point where he had embraced the idea of shared governance, a concept he had initially been reluctant to accept.
"My challenge therefore is to follow in the tradition of Burnham and Hoyte in that regard as it relates to the thrust of making the PNC Reform a party for all Guyanese of all ethnic groups; that they can feel comfortable and secure that this party will represent all their interests irrespective of race, colour or creed. That's a challenge I take up boldly!"
(3) Making a meaningful contribution to the transformation of Guyana's economy
Corbin's third challenge he said, is to make a meaningful contribution to the transformation of Guyana into a modern developed economy so that the Guyanese people can enjoy a better quality of life. It is an objective not yet achieved.
He explained, "Since we are not the government at this time, the only way we can do this is by seeking to influence the present government to adopt coherent and meaningful policies that could transform Guyana's economy."
Corbin says that to the extent that the government refuses to listen as it has been doing, "we are relegated to the position of [being] only agitators for change at the governmental level." "We will continue to agitate and organise to ensure good governance and the implementation of sound economic programmes and policies that can reduce the burdens which the people of Guyana are experiencing at the moment and provide new hope for our young people who unfortunately at this time, see their salvation as anywhere but Guyana. That is a serious tragedy for the country at the moment."
Corbin explained that the people are burdened under the yoke of serious economic pressures, characterised "by unconscionable electricity bills, water rates, rates and taxes, house rents, and the escalating cost of food items, all of which contribute to a very depressing state and when one adds to this the fragile security situation, the escalating drug trade and crime, the future is not promising unless there are dramatic changes either of government policies or a change of government itself."
What the party is doing for its members
Because of the depressed economic state of the country, Corbin said that his party is trying to stimulate some economic activity among its own supporters by encouraging the setting-up of little projects in various communities so "that people will ultimately appreciate that the answer lies in their hands if you can do things."
"So we are encouraging people to pursue approaches which could help to improve their economic state even though we realise that this could only have limited success if there are no changes in the macro-policies of the government."
He said too that at the international level, "we have also tried to encourage investors to begin thinking of putting resources in Guyana because if they invest and people of Guyana benefit from that investment then it would ease the economic pressures which some of our members and Guyanese generally are experiencing at the moment, irrespective of which government is in office."
Disappointments
Corbin said that his major disappointment has been the government's failure to make maximum use of the olive branch he held out after February 1 this year, and their attempts to use it for partisan political advantage rather than for promoting the interest of Guyana.
At a post-Congress rally, Corbin announced his acceptance of an invitation by President Bharrat Jagdeo to resume the dialogue, which had been put on hold under Hoyte. However, Corbin stressed that his concern was that the engagement should be constructive and not be just photo opportunities.
"I entered into the constructive engagement with the hope that we would have learnt from the experience from the past and that there would have been an unchecked haste to correct those errors (that had been made) and really show significant progress."
Corbin observes that the fact that the government "has had to embark on a public relations/ propaganda campaign to convince people that there has been progress in the constructive engagement is evidence in itself that there are weaknesses in the implementation (of decisions)."
There have been some advances but much more could have been achieved to make the people of Guyana feel that the political leaders of this country are putting their welfare first and not resiling to partisan interests."
Hopes for the New Year
Asked about his expectations of the New Year, Corbin said that he would hope that the New Year would "usher in a change for the better one way or the other" and "the burdens facing the Guyanese people will be seriously addressed by the administration."
He said too that he hopes "We make advances in the area of good governance and that shared governance/inclusive governance be on the front burner as a matter to be seriously addressed and implemented because I am convinced that unless the political leadership of Guyana take these matters seriously, the people of Guyana will!"