Dear Editor,
I notice a letter from one of Guyana’s political matchmakers, who claims that, “pro-democracy leaders will agree that positive change in Guyana must begin with the PPP’s removal from office.” What hogwash! Leaders do not decide if the PPP stays or goes, even the political pundits, political elite or commentators do not make this decision; the masses do. If one were to listen to this shallow line of thinking, one would think that Mr Moses Nagamootoo is some commodity to be traded in the political market place. Clearly these political commentators do not know the intrinsic value of Mr Nagamootoo and his history of struggle in the anti-dictatorial movement for over 50 years. He is no opportunist, and it is not in his DNA to trade his political beliefs and principles to every suitor who whistles. He is a political institution that is committed to a principle of emancipating the working class from the chains of impoverishment that several governments of Guyana imposed on them. Both the PPP and the PNC are guilty of this impoverishment of our people, more so this Jagdeo-Ramotar cabal.
It took Mr Nagamootoo years to identify the right collection of youths with the right values with whom to throw in his lot. He found them in the Michael Carringtons and the Charrandass Persauds and the Nigel Hugheses and the Khemraj Ramjattans.
This does not mean there cannot be a coming together of the anti-PPP forces, but it has to be done on the principle of ensuring that the political vacuum left by the PPP is filled with a collection of solid principles and programmes that will truly aid in the process of emancipating the poor and the working class from the drudgery of day-to-day living. With a Moses Nagamootoo in power, the people of Plastic City in Vreed-en-Hoop or Tooppoo in Albion or Pigeon Island on the East Coast can dream again to one day own their own home with safe drinking water in a safe community. But these things do not come with mixing and matching names and faces without a programme. That is like putting the cart before the horse.
What these political newcomers do not recognize is that the Guyanese voters will smell their political opportunism from miles away if they only put faces up without programmes. There must be some fundamental commitment to a set of policies that will culturally change how we do business in Guyana and how we share the patrimony of the people with all the people of Guyana, especially the poor and the working class. We can never go back to the old system of governance that we experienced under the PNC, and what we continue to experience today under the PPP.
Before we even talk about candidates, we want to read in black and white what all sides think about a new constitution and what exactly they would want in that new constitution. What detailed policies and plans do they have for the traditional industries – sugar, bauxite, gold, timber and rice? What detailed polices and plans do they have for the new emerging economic centres of ICT, tourism, plantation-type agriculture with associated value added processing? How will they go about empowering our youths with a firm timeline with clear deliverables? What are their detailed thoughts on renewable electricity and what will they do and why and when? What are they thinking about value-added industries like ethanol production, jewellery manufacturing, etc?
Therefore this wild adventure to suggest names before suggesting policies is very dangerous. So I appeal to all those who think they can do a better job than the PPP to start putting concrete ideas, proposals and policies on paper and start sharing these with the masses. The old people always said, brilliant minds focus on ideas, superior mind on issues and shallow minds on people. History has shown the PPP will always beat the shallow minds that dwell on racism and faces, but can never beat the brilliant minds that dwell on ideas. The PPP never lost the majority since its inception over 60 years ago save and except for two years – in 1964 (UF) and 2011 (AFC). In 1964 it was that dream of the ‘Highway to Happiness,’ which provided a plan that energized a significant number of people. Again in 2011, it was the AFC with their Action Plan of ‘Making the Right Turn’ that offered that energy to over 35,000 people.
The matchmakers have to go and come again since clearly they have failed to recognise what the AFC brings to the table – top notch ideas, programmes and policies, and on top of that the
‘bright steel’ of Guyanese politics – Cde Moses Nagamootoo.
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh
