Mr President, congrats on achieving ‘3-score and ten

guyana chronicle editorial

PRESIDENT David Granger turned 70 three days ago. ‘Three-score and ten’ is a biblical number. So it is understandable that as a practising Christian the President would place much store on this milestone.This year’s birthday is no doubt a special one for a man who up till five years ago was not known as a politician. He was known as a soldier who had risen to the highest echelon of the Guyana Defence Force. As he himself said in his remarks at the function organised in his honour at the GDF headquarters, he walked into that compound decades ago as a recruit and in 2015 he went back as the Commander-in-Chief. Having served the army with distinction, David Granger retired to a life of academia. As a historian he spent much time researching mainly military history and the history of African Guyanese. He became a prolific writer on these subjects. He combined his research with publishing. For almost two decades he published and edited the prestigious news-magazine, Guyana Review, which featured analysis of Guyanese politics, society and culture. A keen study of his speeches since entering politics would reveal a weaving of history into his political rhetoric. Then in 2010 he jumped into the political arena. He announced his intention to run for the presidential candidate of the PNC. Many were skeptical. While Guyanese tend to be suspicious of career politicians they are nevertheless not electorally disposed to those who have not been nurtured in the political trenches. Mr Granger would go on to defy that tendency. Although he had been a PNC member, he was not an activist or a known leader of the party. He became the party’s Presidential Candidate for the impending 2011 elections, even though he was not the leader. When the PNC merged with other parties to form the APNU he became the presidential candidate. After the combined Opposition lost the presidency to the PPP/C, he was elected Opposition Leader. Mr Granger would then contest for the PNC’s leadership against the public and perhaps private advice of some who felt the leadership of the PNC and APNU should not be fused in the same person. He eventually won a narrow victory over current Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge. After some hesitation, he was named Presidential Candidate of the APNU+AFC Coalition which went on to unseat the PPP/C. David Arthur Granger was inaugurated as the country’s eighth Executive President. What an achievement for a man who five years ago was hardly known by the society at large. One may be tempted to say he has been lucky; he threw his hat in the ring at the right time. Even if that were true, he still had to have the capacity to absorb the positive energies that came his way and manoeuver the roadblocks in his way. All the best, Mr President!