Who is the next PPP presidential candidate?

Jul 15, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A few weeks back, I did an analysis on this page titled, “Presidential candidates: The US and Guyana.” I think it is one of my columns that could be reproduced often because its contents cannot become dated.

The essential point of that judgement was despite Mrs. Jagan’s weekly fulminations in the Mirror against the US, that country has a superior political culture to ours.

In the US, decent, brave, candid politicians from all the major parties have the integrity and courage to say that they would like to become the president.
After they make that announcement, we in the media follow them wherever they go.

We do that for one, I repeat, one fundamental reason – our role in the media is to let the country know what are the personality, character and soul of that person that will lead the country.

A territory’s chief decision-maker is the most powerful person in the society. Every citizen, no matter how careless and carefree are their views on politics, ought to have even a fleeting knowledge of who is going to lead them. Yes, lead them because however distant we are from government, the ruler of a nation leads us.

Whether we like it or not, whether we think we don’t care about politicians, once they have power, they lead us because their power is ubiquitous.

A simple example should suffice. A young gold-digger treks to the hinterland, collects his metal, sells it, drinks his rum, have his women, and that is life for him.

He couldn’t be bothered with what his government does. But he could wake up one day and hear his government say that all individual miners must submit a management plan with an environmental assessment document.

What does he do then since only companies can finance such ventures? I once knew a show-repair man that carried on his business on the parapet who had absolutely no interest in politics until the Ministry of Works kicked him off the pavement.

In the US, these ambitious politicians are not afraid to tell their fellow citizens what stuff they are made of and what they believe in.

In Guyana, there are men and women inside the ruling party that want to run for their party’s presidential nomination but would not announce it.

These would-be presidents are literally frightened, sacred, terrified of the consequences of making that simple, honest declaration. The hope is that they will clinch the top spot just before the election fever starts.

So no one will get to know anything about them. What is deeply tragic about Guyana is that such a person may become the president.

How interesting that we have a president that has completed nine years and three more to go and throughout his presidential career has not participated in a media or live debate. In which other country can you find this anomaly?

One of the persons that write under the pen name “Peeping Tom” has looked at four persons and has favoured one of them. Peeping Tom has rightfully dismissed Ralph Ramkarran and Moses Nagamootoo.

I couldn’t agree more. My last choice is Mr. Ramkarran. I feel the tolerance level of Mr. Ramkarran is lower than all of his competitors.

I say in all honesty, deep in my heart that I believe Mr. Jagdeo is more democratically inclined than Mr. Ramkarran, and readers would know how I perceive the democratic credentials of Mr. Jagdeo.

The career of Moses Nagamootoo, for all intent and purpose, is over. No one can be serious to think that given the three humiliating and self-destructive debacles in which he has been the past four years that he has the qualities to lead Guyana.

Mr. Nagamootoo comes across to the analyst as someone with Julius Caesar-type ambitions.
Peeping Tom has chosen Donald Ramotar and in his absence, Robert Persaud.

The question is; does it matter? The PPP is a culture by itself. It is a party born with extensive and intensive distrust of liberal democracy.

Inside its gene pool is a biological rejection of the essential contours of liberal democracy.
Though not practising communism at the psychic level, it accepts the world view of communism.

Communism and fascism stem from the same European fountain of authoritarian, ideological conceptualizations.

The perfect example is Mr. Jagdeo. He broke away from the party not to emulate Mandela or Lula or Bobby Kennedy or PJ Patterson or Olaf Palmer or Barack Obama but Burnham (in my honest opinion).

It had to happen. My Jagdeo grew up in a party where no recognition was given to sacred concepts like the recognition of the separation of power; meaningful dialogue with opposition stakeholders; independence of Parliament. One has to hope the PPP loses the 2011 poll. It should.