Dear Editor,
In Guyana, where history has not been kind to Black people, there remains one institution that has consistently held space for their hopes, their dreams, and their fight for dignity, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR). And like it or not, for now, the custodian of this vast and vulnerable repository is Aubrey Norton, the duly elected leader of the party.
You don’t have to agree with every word he utters or every step he takes. Leadership is never without flaw. But what cannot be dismissed, without dangerous consequences, is the weight he carries as the elected voice of a movement, and more crucially, the protector of the dreams of a people who have endured economic, political, and psychological siege for the better part of the last 30 years.
To attack Norton without vision, unity, or an alternative plan is not political strategy, it is cultural self-harm.
For three decades, Black Guyanese have watched as public institutions were hollowed out, promotions denied, contracts rerouted, communities neglected, and their heroes demonized. From the unlawful detention of human rights activists to the extrajudicial killings of young men in depressed communities, Black suffering has often been met with deafening silence and deadly consequence. Entire villages have been displaced, ancestral lands absorbed into elite real estate ventures, and children starved of opportunity in a country awash in oil riches. All while the state cloaks its discrimination in bureaucratic jargon and press release platitudes.
In the midst of all this, the PNCR has not been perfect, but it has endured. It has kept a light on. It has held the line, often alone, while Black Guyanese bore the brunt of a system that neither sees nor serves them.
That is why it is so unsettling to witness the growing chorus of public sabotage from some within the very movement who should know better. Their grievances may be valid, their passions understandable, but the method is reckless. In a time when unity should be our shield, they wield ego as a weapon. They critique not to build, but to burn. And they do so without presenting a credible, organized, or electable alternative. This is not accountability. It is assisted suicide.
Let us be brutally honest, the Guyanese political landscape is not forgiving. The machinery of state is aligned against Black advancement. The courts, the press, the security forces, many are perceived as being co-opted or complicit. In such a climate, the PNCR cannot afford the luxury of fratricide.
Norton may not be the ideal for everyone. But he is the elected leader. And dismantling him publicly, viciously, and without process, is akin to smashing the only vessel still carrying Black aspirations in this country. That vessel may need reinforcement. It may need a new sail, a better navigator, and a course correction. But to sink it in open water is to leave our people drifting in a hostile tide with no direction and no anchor.
The time will come for leadership transitions. That is the nature of democracy. But those transitions must be rooted in process, principle, and collective vision, not emotionalism or social media tantrums.
If we truly care about the future of our people, then we must protect the institutions that still house their dreams. The PNCR is one such institution. And until such time that the people say otherwise, Aubrey Norton is its steward.
To destroy him carelessly is not just to wound a man. It is to vandalize the aspirations of millions of Black Guyanese, past and present, who are still waiting for justice, for access, for dignity, and for a nation that recognizes their full humanity.
Let us not fail them now.
Egbert Jones
