The delegates have the power

Jul 28, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

While I do not expect that the forthcoming congress of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will decide who will be the party’s next presidential candidate, it is for the delegates to decide on the issue. It is not for anyone to prejudge what will be announced.
It would be unfortunate if congress did not, at the minimum, decide on a mechanism to determine how the presidential candidate should be decided. Some observers are asking for party primaries and run-off elections between the potential candidates, but I would prefer a special congress be called to make the selection.
It is for the delegates themselves to decide at that forum whether they will choose a presidential candidate or whether they will instruct — as they have the power to do — that a mechanism be established to select or elect a presidential candidate.
Who knows, they may even choose a new General Secretary of the party. After all, if The Donald is seen as a future President of Guyana, the party may wish to groom a new GS.
I have stated before that it will be a grave mistake for the congress not to consider a mechanism for choosing the party’s next presidential candidate, especially considering that there is not likely to be any other congresses of the party prior to the election.
Congress should therefore not leave this matter open-ended, because to do so would be to leave the decision on who should run for President to the executive committee of the party, which is the body that makes decisions for the party in between congress.
I believe that to leave the decision to the Executive Committee is to court disaster. We are all painfully aware of the outcome of the decisions of party organs, other than congress, when it comes to selecting presidential candidates. After Cheddi died, the party went for Janet Jagan as its presidential candidate, and Guyana has had no rest from political strife since 1997.
We also know that subsequent congresses failed to call on the party to impose restraints on the Government, or to demand a greater role for the party in the formulation of Government policy. The party must not make that mistake again if it is serious about winning the 2011 elections.
It must carefully study the tragic consequences of Jagdeo’s presidency, beginning with a criminal insurgency against his administration and, of course, a systematic decline in the country’s economy since 1997. It should denounce the trend of the present Government in drifting from controversy to controversy. These controversies that have erupted should never have resulted, and are mainly due to poor governance in Guyana.
It is important, therefore, if the party is to play a more central role in negating the negative image of the present Government, that the congress dictates the general direction in which they would like to see the party move, without rubber-stamping the existing policies and programmes of the Jagdeo Administration.
It would therefore be an act of extreme insensitivity if the forthcoming congress of the PPP, slated for August 2 – 3, does not seriously demand changes in the way the Government is being administered.
I also wish to propose that the congress outlaws non-voting members of the central committee, and give a greater role to this committee by insisting that it meets every month so that it can have a say about the direction in which the country and the party is moving.
It is also pleasing to learn that the party will be saluting its fallen comrades. While the focus is likely to be on the late Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh, the party should not forget the late Joseph O’ Lall, who was with Cheddi since the sixties. It is important that, in saluting O’Lall, the party makes its feelings clear about the manner in which he was treated.
On this note, the party should also pay tribute to those outstanding stalwarts who are getting on in age and who now should be retired gracefully from Government work.
Finally, I believe that the next congress should send a strong message that it will no longer tolerate within its ranks persons whose personal and professional conduct are a disgrace. And most definitely, the highest decision making body of the party, Congress, should ensure that no intellectual fraudster is ever elected to any decision making organ of the party.

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The delegates have the power

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