Freddie Kissoon – Time for the PPP to rein in Mr. Jagdeo

Jun 10, 2008 Freddie Kissoon

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Under Both Presidents Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte, opposition politicians got inside information about secret meetings of the nerve centre of the Government. The WPA in particular had insiders that were live transmission wires.

Hoyte was particularly so peeved at the haemorrhaging of confidential information to the WPA that he passed the Public Corporation Act, which prohibited public servants and similar categories of state employees from speaking to the press. Since 1992, the PPP has deepened the content of that bill.

We are seeing the same thing with the Jagdeo presidency. From inside the Cabinet, to Freedom House, to the security forces, to the public sector, the glaring fact is that the media, the PNC and other opposition forces have their contacts who tell them about the happenings inside the control room of the power elites.

These things cannot hide, because human beings are essentially decent people. Top employees of the civil service felt that Burnham had gone in a haughty, cruel direction, and they were glad to talk to Walter Rodney about the bad things Burnham was doing.

There are countless people who are the custodians of confidential documentation, and they let us in on what is taking place. Mr. Burnham knew this, Mr. Hoyte knew this, and Mr. Jagdeo knows it.

We in the media are privy to the growing schism between the presidency and the ruling party.

Some ideas that were transmitted to us by PPP princes call into question whether the PPP is not heading for self-destruction come 2011, when a national election is due.

A large measure of Mr. Jagdeo’s policy-making process many core cadres of the PPP are not in agreement with.

These leaders carp daily about Mr. Jagdeo’s deportment, but they seem powerless to rein him in. I had secret conversations with two of these central actors plus a close family member of a third. What follows are the contents of our conversation.

The first question I asked is why is the PPP tolerating Mr. Jagdeo’s persistent willingness to appear as a dictator when that is unnecessary, especially since it makes winning the next election harder? The answer I received is one I knew a long time ago.

Here are the multi-dimensional aspects of that answer. One is that many Freedom House officials do not see Mr. Jagdeo as someone they admire, but he is the President who has arranged comfortable placements for them, and therefore their hands are tied.

One is talking about economic suicide should one go against Mr. Jagdeo’s direction. Four names were given to me who are crucially placed in the party to topple Mr. Jagdeo, but presidential patronage has led to the Martin Carter Syndrome (a mouth is muzzled by the hand that feeds it).

Secondly, there is a suspicion game that has crept into the PPP leadership. Many of the disenchanted do not know who to trust, because any anti-Jagdeo conspiratorial plan, if leaked to Jagdeo, may result in the withdrawal of their placements. I have been reliably informed that Mr. Joseph O ‘Lall was consistently indiscreet in his frustration with Jagdeo’s leadership, and it was inevitable that he would have fallen.

Since the hatchet job on O’Lall, the number of silent participants has increased.

One of my vexations, which I relayed to all those PPP insiders that I have confidentially discussed Jagdeo with, is how could the PPP allow someone without any intellectual erudition, strategic brilliance, political finesse, visionary ideals, philosophical smartness and unique ideas, like Mr. Jagdeo, to have humbled the entire PPP leadership the way he has done.

I backed up that question with a mountain of evidence. I cited UG, the Stabroek advertisement affair, O’Lall’s firing, the lapse of twelve bills passed in Parliament because of presidential rejection, the Sanata privatization, whispered attempts of a third term, among several presidential actions that many at the apex of the ruling party did not agree with.

I put forward the inquiry: “Why don’t you guys rein in Mr. Jagdeo?”

The response will take up an entire column. I was told that Mr. Jagdeo is causing a lot of headaches for the party, particularly its image abroad. For example, the Carter Center has cut its ties with Guyana out of the belief that the PPP did not live up to what the world expected of them after 1992.

But it was put to me that there cannot be any break with the President, because there is a great fear that it could cause the PPP to lose power. I was politely told, “Freddie, any rift between the party and the Office of the President would weaken the Government, and the PNC and the public servants will flex their muscles and it may embolden the gunmen.

I then said, “So Mr. Jagdeo can do what he wants?” The answer was, “Yes, up to 2011.”

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