Dear Editor,
The PNC/R, APNU in strategizing should focus on building a more diverse team. It is difficult for the APNU to win the elections without the AFC. I find it difficult to accept that the opposition would have such a huge body of knowledge – vast experience, knowledge, know-how, outside of a coalition to challenge the PPP/C at the upcoming General and Regional Elections. Heavyweights from the PNC/R opposition are Carl Greenidge, Joseph Harmon, former President David Granger, Basil Williams, Volda Lawrence, Winston Jordan, Roysdale Ford, Sharma Soloman, and I am still including Amanza Walton-Desir under the PNC/R, for this purpose. From the AFC, there is Nigel Hughes, Raphael Trotman, David Patterson, Catherine (Cathy) Hughes. The WPA has Dr. David Hinds, Rohit Khanai, Tacuma Ogunseye and Kadakie Amsterdam. Others who can make a substantial contribution to a coalition government are Dr. Terrence Campbell, Dr. Yog Mahadeo, Simona Broomes, Glen Lall, Nigel London and the list goes on.
Now, this is an oil and gas economy. The fastest growing economy in the world and where are the heavy weights in the PNC/R? This is not only about getting votes but also about having the capacity and capabilities to govern, it is about mobilizing resources and bringing people on board who can help in these areas. The political landscape is changing rapidly, and I hope that it will change in the direction of an APNU+AFC Coalition, so that they will have a greater chance of winning this election. With the recent events, if the opposition supporters will not be voting for the APNU+AFC, this is how the opposition supporters votes could go. Some will vote for APNU, some will vote for AFC, people are already planning to vote for Amanza Walton-Desir, so that she can get at least one seat in parliament, the other smaller parties together under a joinder arrangement may also get a seat in parliament.
I have separated Azruddin Mohamed because as we know, he has a few things to work through, but he may also get a seat or two in parliament.
I cannot understand what is so difficult. Any government will have thousands of opportunities for all of those persons mentioned above and so many more. Are you telling me that the PNC/R, APNU and AFC cannot form a coalition to contest the upcoming elections? I know that coalitions are difficult to build. I am a partnership practitioner who has studied the science and art of building partnerships. I wrote a manual on partnership building; developed several training modules on building, managing and sustaining partnerships; conducted several training on building partnerships, so I know a thing or two about partnership building and while partnerships are difficult, they are not impossible.
Let me share with you a difficult situation that is now a good news story for the APNU+AFC coalition government which is GuySuCo. Do you know how the management at GuySuCo under the APNU+AFC government was able to survive an extremely disruptive reorganizing process with the closure of four estates, in a highly political environment and still produced over two to three times more sugar from 2016 to 2020, even with less resources than the corporation produced from 2021 to 2025? They did it with experience, commitment but most importantly, maturity. The managers who I worked with at GuySuCo from 2016 to 2020 were some of the most mature men and women I have ever met. When I went to GuySuCo in 2016 and people asked me where I was working and I said GuySuCo, their response used to be ‘I will pray for you’ because GuySuCo was seen as an extremely political place. However, the managers and staff in GuySuCo knew that something had to be done to save the business and industry and they rose to the occasion. In my view, they were ready for change. My job was to assist in leading the change management process and prevent the company and Guyana from descending in chaos.
Building partnerships is a science and an art which worked at GuySuCo. The corporation’s revenue was US$200 million more from 2016 to 2020 than it was from 2020 to 2025. I also worked with a group of waste recyclers or waste pickers at the Haags Bosch Landfill Site. My job was to train them to work together, develop more cohesion among them and help them to form and register a waste recycling organization. What started out as a difficult task, with me in the landfill site every Thursday afternoon for months training the waste pickers, ended with them planning their speech for the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) on the importance of informal waste recycling and with them planning their speech for parliament on waste recycling. The waste pickers learned to work so well together that they eventually formed and registered an organization, GT Recyclers.
If the waste pickers could have formed and registered an organization and successfully work together in the landfill site and pool their resources together, are you telling the people of Guyana that leaders in the APNU and AFC cannot form a coalition to contest the upcoming elections, and govern this country together? This decision is unacceptable!
This is a moment in time for the PNC/R. The party has a real opportunity to evolve as the national political party, as the larger party in a broad coalition. However, the question is, will the leadership of the PNC/R be magnanimous and rise to meet this moment, or will they see this moment through a pigeonholed view that people are only coming for something, instead of placing a value on people’s desire to contribute to their country in this moment?
Sincerely,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
June 18, 2025
