Dear Editor,
After listening to the PNCR Leader Mr. David Granger’s recent interview on Public Interest Programme I am convinced that the road ahead for the opposition would be tedious to say the least. I would not comment on matters that are exclusive to the PNCR since those are for that party membership. I however, invoke my right to contest Mr Granger’ s claims that he managed the coalition properly. I disagree. If I am to grade his performance it will be a “C”. It is not my intention in this letter to advance detail reasons and evidence in support of my contention. My reason for this approach is that the WPA’s Executive will at some point state its assessment and experiences in the APNU/ APNU+ AFC coalition and government. Our collective judgement is more important than my personal views.
Mr Granger is playing his usual “games”. The PNCR like all APNU parties did not contest the 2011 General and Regional Elections in its own name: the same is true for the 2015 elections. It was the APNU+ AFC coalition what went to the polls. Therefore, in both elections the success was mainly due to the “synergy” created by the unity of the parties and should not be reduced to the Presidential Candidate, notwithstanding the fact he is an important factor in the equation.
In answering the question, of what kept the coalition together Mr Granger was more careful in his response, contrary to the impression created by the Demerara Wave’ s article captioned, “PNCR Leader says he improved the party performance, properly managed the APNU+ AFC coalition”. The article created the erroneous impression that Granger was claiming that the maintenance of the coalition was simply due to his skillful management. In fairness to the former President, at the very beginning of his answer he made the point that the survival of the coalition had to do with the fact that the parties had a shared vision for the country, economically, politically and socially, and important in realising this vision was the defeat of the PPPC and its 23 years rule. This obviously important point was missed by the writer of the Demerara Waves article.
As I said in my introductory paragraph, my intention is not a comprehensive laying out of facts and evidence in support of my contention that Granger did not manage either the APNU or the APNU + AFC coalition and government properly. The assessment of Granger’s stewardship of the APNU and the coalition is important for future coalition politics and unity of the opposition. And it is for this reason I have conceded this matter to the collective wisdom of the WPA Executive.
I conclude by making this candid observation: from his utterances in his recent interview, and my experience dealing with Granger for the last ten years. I am convinced that at times he is political naive, and many of his political decisions often amount to “infantile disorder”.
Yours sincerely,
Tacuma Ogunseye
