The PPP needs to listen to grassroots people

Dear Editor,

I recently visited my homeland and was shocked to learn that the party to which I pledge my allegiance is not doing well at all.  I was shocked into reality when I held discussions with the people on the ground or grassroots individuals, if you like, who emphatically stated that they have lost faith in the party’s ability to command respect and admiration from its support base.

This is startling news and should not be glossed over easily as propaganda in the way the party is doing. Rather, there should be aggressive outward consultations with a view to correcting the glaring problems within as they chart the way forward.
And this is exactly my point: the PPP/C has been saying, where have we gone wrong?

They have been asking themselves these questions while at the same time providing the selfsame answers over and over again. Look at all the good things we have done for this nation? Yes, look at all the good things they think they’ve done for this nation? Or better still, the many things they failed to do for the people which gave them good reason to be angry.

They cannot ask themselves the questions and expect honest answers. What they should be doing is consulting the people who would have to vote for them. They have honest questions or concerns and they are the ones who have a wealth of ideas to furnish the party with a safe course ahead.

Listening to the presidential advisors or local party hacks would only provide a narrow myopic view of things, which have not worked; they are systems which would only lead the party in a downward spiral. November of 2011 did just that, but from all appearances my party has not learnt its lesson. It is time for new perspectives and fresher ideas. A look at other ways of doing things. The old ways are only creating more hurt and anger within the ranks of the populace.

Someone wrote that the two political heavyweights, that is, the PPP and the PNC were tailored from the same cloth. The reason for that statement is that both parties fail to listen. The PNC, now APNU, because they  believed they knew it all and no one could tell them anything. Well, strikingly, the PPP is no different; they are doing the same thing, failing miserably to ask the people, reason with them or simply level with them. A wealth of ideas is out there if only they do the above. But no, they sit on their high horses and expect everything would be dandy because the party knows what’s best for the people. I’ll tell you if this present situation persists then the party is in for a shock. It might even be worse than 2011.

Yours faithfully,
Neil Adams