In much the same way that there are winners and losers at general elections, so too there are winners and losers among those individuals who get a piece of the political pie. After all the pie is only so big and however much he may have had to depend on Mr. Jagdeo to become the President Donald Ramotar…. er….excuse me….His Excellency Mr. Donald Ramotar, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is now his own man. He had promised that Citizen Jagdeo will still be a leading light in the new setup but that’s another matter. President Ramotar may even get it into his head that Citizen Jagdeo might have been in some way responsible for the Party’s loss of its parliamentary majority and might decide that Jagdeo does not, after all, fit in with his plans. Here’s an idea, Your Excellency! You can offer Citizen Jagdeo a take-it-or-leave-it offer of Ambassador to India or China and just leave it at that.
Other people will come and go. His Excellency appoints his own Cabinet. Some will probably stay. Many, perhaps most, will go. That’s always the interesting part. Who will stay and who will go is the big question.
Whatever happens HEADS WILL ROLL! Heads will roll too among the sundry advisors and lackeys and sinecure functionaries that used to be part of Citizen Jagdeo’s entourage. President Ramotar will want his own entourage, family members and friends, perhaps. It is the way politics works. So that in all likelihood some of those who were flying high for a long time, gun-butting people, running people over with their vehicles, assaulting polling agents and – as the saying goes – “doing the Gods” – might find themselves out in the cold, not favoured by President Ramotar. The mind boggles!
And will the new President be driven by different priorities. Will we have a freer press, for example? Will there be private radio stations? Will NCN and the Chronicle give us a break with the government propaganda? Will the defunct Ethnic Relations Commission be finally outlawed? Will we have a new Police Commissioner? This one has gone way past retirement age! Will we stop selling our forests off to Asian entrepreneurs? Will VAT go down and Public Servants go up?
What about Dr. Luncheon? Will the poor man announce his retirement from politics or will he have to be ingloriously pensioned off? And will his pension come anywhere near to Citizen Jagdeo’s?
There are other considerations too. Like whether or not President Donald might not decide that Pradoville is bad for the party’s image and simply sell off the land to the residents of Tiger Bay. Of course he can’t touch Citizen Jagdeo’s house. Presumably the good ex-President might not mind having different neighbours to those he might have expected. And as a matter of interest will it now be OK for Morty Mingo to go ahead and have his house lot in Pradoville too.
Then there are all those comrades who crossed the floor and who can’t cross back. What will their fate be? Perhaps some Presidential Advisor (it really doesn’t matter what they advise on) spots. Permanent Secretaries, perhaps? Now the danger here, President Ramotar, reposes in putting square pegs in round holes. Cronies are known all too frequently to be hustlers and nothing more. They ingratiate themselves for what they can get and sometimes they become obnoxious; and remember Mr. President you have a hung parliament hanging over your head.
