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July 12, 2002: After its loss in the 2001 election, factions with different conceptualizations of what lies beyond tomorrow for the PNC came into existence within that party. One group felt that with Hoyte in the twilight of his career, it will organise for a natural succession, and a continuation of the political methodology of Hoyte as he was since he became president in 1985. This includes a parliamentary role; an ongoing relation with the government; traditional PNC constituency politics etc. This group gravitated around the personality of Raphael Trotman and consisted of a younger genre.
The cascading nature of party politics also threw up another sect. This unit felt that the PNC was born with certain inherent characteristics based on Forbes Burnham's theories of Guyanese political sociology. Burnham once explained to a group of Afro-American radical scholars that electoral engineering was necessary in a plural and ethnically divided society like Guyana and that he Burnham had to alternative. This group doesn't deal with Burnham's record as a possessor of state power. It is concerned with the way Burnham saw the PPP and Guyanese society. This group believes that the PNC and its African constituency have congenital rights in Guyana which must be preserved and must be demanded now that the era of electoral engineering is over. This body presented a separate submission to the Constitutional Reform Commission in which, though it was part of the PNC's leadership, requested constitutional power-sharing which was not the official line of the party. This department occupies strategic
corners in Congress Place and puts Hoyte under pressure to adopt some of Burnham's approaches.
There is a third dimension in the PNC. As the PPP loses ideas, creativity, and becomes more insecure, as the economy of Guyana falters, as the problems of the world multiply, this group sees a radical solution to the PNC's electoral dilemma. It believes that the PPP is racist, the Guyanese society is controlled by Indians, the country is going nowhere with traditional party politics and therefore a dirty propaganda war and the practice of violence are the road to a reclamation of the PNC's domination of Guyana once more. This cabal is contemptuous of the Trotman/ Hoyte presence. It has an amorphous but ongoing working relation with the power-sharing group, but its main base is a few villages up the east coast plus an unholy relation with a criminal conspiracy. This faction is unintellectual, is contemptuous of orthodox political behaviour, is disrespectful of moral and political obligations and hasn't a clue about the nature of Guyanese society. It is a dangerous sect that will stop at nothing to fulfill an ideology that is flawed. What is ironic about PNC politics is that in periods of favourable opportunity, the mainstream of the PNC aids and abets the behaviour of this violent breed. In the consistency of support, this group has now assumed its wildness has been accepted and will deliver the coup de grace. This is what happened on Wednesday, July 3. It failed because this department within the PNC is poor in thinking and essentially foolish in its political comprehensions
The marchers from the East Coast then were three types of protesters. One set was the traditional PNC supporters. They would have come to Georgetown, relax at the Square of the Revolution, mek noise, and cuss up the PPP government. But overthrowing and beating up was not their game. A second set was the converts that the violent clan had nurtured in certain villages since the dialogue broke down. Their task was to do was the extremist fringe instructed them to do but brucking up was on their mind. But a caveat is in order here for those who study the politics of the PNC.
The PNC does not have the resources and the intellectual materials to educate its supporters in the art of rhetoric. Therefore the PNC has to be careful with its use of inflammatory terms for purposes of political propaganda. Many observers including the Stabroek News and PPP leaders say that the PNC cannot be excused for the violence that occurs on the streets because their rhetoric engenders it. PNC leaders would argue that "MOH FYAAH" is a slang term that is meant for propaganda purposes. But the converts of the second group take the term literally to mean setting fire. A good example to show how this operates in Guyana is to contrast it with the US. In the US, a senator would tell his supporters to go and there and kick arse. His campaign workers know he means it figuratively. It means go out there and work extra hard. In Guyana, it has the opposite effect. The slang words "MOH FYAAH" is a dangerous statement in the present context of things. Also it needs to be mentioned that the converts of the second group, though they accept the leadership of the second faction within the PNC, they see themselves are supporters of the PNC
The third set of marchers are the children of nightmare. And they present an insoluble problem for the PNC. This is the THEIFMAN group. Their agenda is not politics. Their role is to get into the protest, then get into people's pockets and into their business places. When the crowds scatter, then the THEIFMAN group makes it move. Sometimes, this group creates confusion among the marchers just to create the opportunity for them to steal.
So who invaded the presidential complex? The second group of marchers led by the extremist fringe. The plan was to attack symbols of state power as soon as Georgetown was reached. This group was in an angry mood. For months they were fed on an ideology of violence, racism and anti-PPP hatred. As the march reached Georgetown, the Office of the President came into view. PNC supporters went to the Square of the Revolution and others went to Georgetown. The second set pounced upon the compound of the Presidential complex and the THIEFMAN group followed them. Then confusion, wildness and foolishness turned into madness. Two types of action occurred at the same time and that led to disunity and disagreement. The second set of marchers ran into the compound and had political plans in mind. The THEIFMAN group began stealing at the same time. Poor Philip was paralysed. He is not a strategist. He is not a tactician. He is not a revolutionary planner. He didn't know what to do. He watched from outside as the plan went astray, and he simply left, and in leaving, his supporters went leaderless.
The extremist fringe was derided by its critics as the lunatic fringe. Now even PNC supporters are calling them the lunatic fringe. PNC leaders are incensed at the extremist group because they attacked the compound in the name of the PNC, they used PNC supporters to act out their wild card act, and PNC supporters got killed, and now the PNC is facing relentless criticism from all quarters in Guyana and from outside of Guyana too. But more importantly, PNC leaders are mad because this group failed to show leadership and left their converts exposed to the mercy of the state. Fortunately, the state showed mercy. Thank God, they did. We are all Guyanese. We deserve to live.