Dear Editor,
In your news item, ‘Search for PPP candidate still in initial phase – Ramotar,’ (July 4), PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar’s claim that the PPP’s search for a presidential candidate in still in its initial phase because the party has been tied up with other things, may have revealed a lot more than he intended or even knows. What ‘other things’ could be more important at this juncture of the PPP’s paralyzed existence than to be genuinely looking for a suitable and eminently qualified replacement candidate for its 1999, 2001 and 2006 presidential choice who has long severed the government’s umbilical cord from the party and run it on his own terms as opposed to the party’s terms?
I am not egging on the party here to hurriedly find a replacement, but simply trying to determine how far removed the party is from the effects of current political conditions on the ground that it may either be tone deaf or the great pretender if it isn’t hearing the low but growing rumble among the people – including many in the party’s support base – for another shot at real political change in 2011. And unless it thinks it can once again successfully foist another dark horse presidential candidate on the nation without some form of national vetting, then conventional wisdom says it should have at least settled on a candidate by now, lest 2011 provides it with an unpleasant reality check.
From my general observations, though, I don’t think the PPP has been too busy with ‘other things’ to make time for deciding on a presidential candidate, but has been studiously throwing out names for the candidacy to test the political winds and see if the President really has his own plans that could throw the PPP’s plans for a replacement candidate into a quandary. Under normal circumstances – meaning, if the President was accountable to the PPP for the implementation of its manifesto, yet the current state of affairs still obtained – either the President would have been recalled or the PPP would have already named a 2011 stand-by replacement by now if only to assure the nation, and especially its disconcerted support base, that it is aware of the problem and is getting ready to take remedial action.
But the PPP and its government are not operating under normal circumstances and don’t enjoy as cosy a relationship as we would expect between a ruling party and its government, and this is one reason why there has been much talk about a Jagdeo third term, despite the President reiterating he is not seeking a third term, but will step down in 2011. (The other reason why there is talk about a third term are the ongoing secret talks on ‘parliamentary issues’ between the President and the Leader of the Opposition, but that is not the topic of discussion here.)
Despite predictions and assumptions, no one knows for sure what this hooked-on-power President will do, and so the PPP leadership, much like the bulk of the people, is understandably apprehensive about whether there will be a ‘third term’ grab or even a coalition of opposition political forces to challenge the disconnected and cocky PPP. The PPP, meanwhile, has not helped its cause or image as a supposed major political player since it has been extremely quiet to the point of being conspicuously missing in action during the Jagdeo presidency, which saw some of the most upsetting political shenanigans in government that had nothing to do with criminal elements or the PNC.
Apart from what non-PPP supporters can identify as trouble spots in the government’s style of governance, there were other delicate trouble spots that saw the government go against segments of the PPP support base, including firings of PPP stalwarts from the government and the shocking strike action by the PPP union – GAWU – against the state-owned GuySuCo, followed by the brow-raising deal reached for government to pay GuySuCo $4B for sugar estate lands on which to establish a housing development, but which many saw as government’s appeasement of angry sugar workers by ensuring cash-strapped GuySuCo had money to pay salaries and incentives.
The first question that now arises is this: Given all that the PPP support base went through from 1992 to now, but especially during the Jagdeo presidency, is there enough of a basis for the PPP support base to come out in overwhelming numbers and vote the PPP back into office in 2011? Maybe the PPP and its government have also realized their support base has shrunk since 1992, so in order to make up for that loss, tons of taxpayers’ monies may wind up being pumped into the Amerindian communities as a means of securing their votes.
There is also a possibility, contrary to all that is logical or commonsensical, that regardless of whether the President goes for a third term or the PPP puts up a new candidate, Guyanese could again vote race in 2011, so a second question is: How much of a factor will the PNC be if the PPP decides to use its arch-rival again as its trump card to whip up fear and insecurity among supporters?
The government appears increasingly as a facilitator of every man hustling for himself, and makes no pretence about using individual successes and achievements as part of its propaganda missives that the country is making progress; however the reality is that the majority can only see but not taste, and often times have to settle for the ‘crumbs’ falling off the tables of the seemingly affluent. Little wonder then that ordinary folks are turning to lives of crime in society as a means of surviving in the hope of one day enjoying the style and standard of living of others they see living large off the public coffers.
Who is going to change the depressed dynamics for these and other Guyanese after 18 years of PPP rule? President Jagdeo didn’t do it in 11 years, so he should be automatically disqualified on that basis. PNC Leader Robert Corbin said he is not interested in the presidency (he never said he is not interested in the prime-ministerial portfolio, too), and even if he were interested, he could not lead the PNC to victory. And so it logically comes down to either the AFC presidential candidate, Mr Khemraj Ramjattan (assuming an AFC-led coalition agrees on his nomination) or a new PPP candidate.
Mr Ralph Ramkarran reportedly said if he is the PPP’s candidate, he will continue the PPP’s “positive qualities,” but he never listed examples of those “positive qualities.” He also reportedly said if he is elected President that “the country can be assured that corruption will be tackled from day one, that transparency will be implemented, [and] that we will work as hard as we can to bring unity. These are policies of the Peoples Progressive Party and we will implement them with the greatest vigour…”
The only problem here is that the PPP government has problems with systemic corruption, lacks transparency, and engages in discrimination which affects racial unity, but as Speaker of the House, he never did or said anything to address these very problems he implicitly acknowledged exist. Why should anyone believe him now? In fact, both President Cheddi Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo promised to address those very issues, so the fact that Mr Ramkarran identifies them as problems to be resolved means his own party failed. And ironically, he was part of the failure!
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
