Highlights of the PPP General Secretary’s Report expose deep fault line in party and Govt.

Aug 05, 2008 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Now that the PPP’s 29th Congress is over, permit me to comment on certain highlights reportedly contained in the party’s General Secretary’s Report.

First, he highlighted the negative presence of the narco-trade and the criminal enterprises with a linkage to politics.

He probably is the second person in the PPP’s hierarchy, besides former Home Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira, to have publicly admitted Guyana has been bedevilled by the narcotics scourge.

And these admissions continue to stand in stark contrast to President Bharrat Jagdeo’s brow-raising request for the U.S. to provide a list with names of Guyanese suspected of narco-smuggling activities.

On the link between politics and crime, in which the real or perceived shenanigans of the PNC were targeted, it is amazing how much time was devoted to this, compared to the narcotics scourge and its money laundering spin-off effects on wider society, and the undermining of the legitimate economy.

No mention was made of Government’s failure to arrest either problem, or of the perception that Government officials may have been involved or tainted in either or both types of criminal situations.

On this first point, the General Secretary chose to focus extensively on one set of criminals that seemed to work against the Government and that threatened to bring down the Government, while ignoring those that seemed to work with the approving ‘wink and nod’ of the Government and probably helped the party retain its hold on power.

Crime-related politics is not limited to the PNC; it has snared the PPP Government.

Second, the General Secretary reportedly traced the history of the opposition forces to make the country ungovernable since 1997 by creating a security crisis, and when the police responded to the lawlessness, the PNC accused the police of extra-judicial killings, and, later, the murder of young black men whenever bandits or criminals “were confronted by the police and were killed.”

It is true that the PNC did set out to make the country ungovernable, but the police failed to do their job, because many were corrupted politically, materially, and financially; and the entire Force needed a top-down reform, which the Government still has not undertaken at the time of this writing.

And extra-judicial killings of black criminals and criminal suspects were not done exclusively by the police, but also by a Phantom Squad, whose secret inner workings are still emerging.

Overall, throughout the security crisis, the PPP Government did not implement any effective crime-fighting strategy, nor did the police arrest a single PNC official or major criminal figure head.

One also has to ask what the General Secretary’s true motivation is for promising to establish a squad, similar to the defunct Tactical Services Unit, knowing the President promised six years ago to set up a SWAT team.

It makes one wonder whether the PPP and the Government are milking the security crisis for support and votes, rather than finding solutions and answers.

Third, the General Secretary lambasted certain independent media houses for joining the Parliamentary opposition in attacking the Government.

What he did not state was that the Government enjoys full and ready access to the Guyana Chronicle, a radio station, a television station, a centralised Government information service centre, and the ruling party’s house journal.

And that none of these outlets really cater to views and speeches that are opposed to the Government and ruling party.

He also deliberately ignored the fact that, 16 years after taking power, the PPP Government refuses to end its monopoly on radio.

By the way, Mr. General Secretary, why do communist regimes and dictatorships refuse to have freedom of information laws? Got something to hide?

Fourth, he boasted that, following the 2006 elections, the PPP/C had a Parliamentary representative in every region, the only party in the country to achieve this.

The truth is that the PPP continues to have its Parliamentary representative, not a people’s representative, in every region.

Ergo, the party, not the electorate, determines who the representative is; and it is the party, not the people, that is responsible for recalling such representatives.

It is a Party List system that works well in communist countries, and it is not representative of a true democracy.

Fifth, the General Secretary exposed how much he and the PPP are disconnected from the reality facing people when he said that the PPP/C victory at the elections was also due to the fact that the Government had performed magnificently, and lavished praise on President Jagdeo, as having ‘grown in stature both nationally and internationally’.

He never mentioned that on Election Day 2006 — a national holiday in order to allow more people enough time to vote — a significant portion of Indians, who normally support and vote PPP, stayed home in ‘silent protest’ at Jagdeo’s failures in addressing their major concerns.

Moreover, if the General Secretary could hail Jagdeo’s performance as ‘magnificent,’ it is proof why the General Secretary should not be the party’s 2011 presidential candidate; because Jagdeo’s ‘magnificent performance’ is arguably based exclusively on the fact that the party is still in power and certainly not about empowering the people on the economy and personal security.

Finally, on the issue of a presidential candidate for the 2011 general elections, the General Secretary noted that there had been much talk in the public as to who it would be, but that this will be decided by the party, and not in the public.

Look, people are only talking because they are deeply frustrated by the present Government’s performance.

Whoever is going to run this country needs to be known to all Guyanese, not just the PPP’s Executive Committee, before they run for public office. They must be vetted and scrutinized.

If this was done in 1999, we won’t be talking this much about presidential candidates three years ahead of elections.

I also hope Guyanese pay careful attention to the words of President Jagdeo, who said: “(This) would be (his) last time addressing the party at its highest forum as President, unless another such congress was held before the next general elections.”

Note the word ‘unless’, coming from the man who just received the most votes for the Central Committee elections.

Are we looking at another Vladimir Putin? Do we really need this much continued stress?
Emile Mervin

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