THE MAN FOR THE JOB

Aug 13, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

This column has not endorsed anyone as the presidential candidate for the 2011 elections.

Moses Nagamootoo was always the preference of this column to lead not just the PPP into those elections but also to become the next President of Guyana.

This column, however, did not expect Moses to return from the political wilderness and therefore felt that if the decision was left to the Executive Committee of the party, and without Moses in contention, then “The Donald” would be the most likely choice.

This column has also analysed some other possible candidates, arguing, for example, that Robert Persaud would be better advised to defer any possible ambitions until the next ten years; or that Ralph Ramkarran who has the political pedigree to be a serious challenger needed to have thrown his hat into the ring early.
I have been proven right about Ramkarran.

It is clear from what is now being made public that some delegates were swayed against voting for this seasoned member of the Central Executive.

This was possible, I believe, because those agitating against Ramkarran were able to exploit the fact that there was some amount of uncertainty about whether his hat was in the ring.

The Peeper is now convinced that the PPP delegates, by reviving the political career of Moses Nagamootoo, have signalled just whom they believe should lead the PPP into the next elections. This is the analysis of this column.

This column will now go further and say that grave mistakes were made in the past. Political compromise was shunned upon because it was felt that the party and the government were under attack and under such conditions no concessions could have been offered to the opposition.

This, I believe, was an extremely misguided position which has been extremely responsible for the sort of problems we have faced in this country since 1997.

Far from shunning political compromise, the PPP ought to have offered more in terms of concessions to the opposition so as to alienate the extremists that have caused so much pain in this country.

Guyana needs to put that period behind it. What is needed to create the right political climate is a politician who is not under any siege mentality, someone with the political courage and experience to ensure that as much as the PPP gives it receives in return.

While the public posture of the PPP since 1997 has been a defiant one, the PPP has found itself on more than one occasion being forced to concede concessions under intense political pressure without in turn demanding reciprocal concessions from the opposition.

The PPP needs leadership that can restore the vision of Cheddi Jagan, who was prepared on the economic front to consider alternatives to the Washington Consensus.

It needs a politician who can ensure that the work that was left unfinished by Cheddi in relation to civil liberties is completed.

There is no doubt that the PPP when it came to power faced a hostile press from sections of the electronic media.

Yet today, the PPP is living in fear of the more responsible sections of the media, while its government has become friends with some of the individuals who tormented the PPP and many of its members, including Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

The PPP put too much power in the hands of political neophytes; persons who had little capacity to deal with the opposition, politicians who did not and still do not understand how to build genuine political alliances.

We did not have to go down the road that we had gone down since 1997. Guyana should not have had to suffer so much politically and economically.

Leadership failed this country. If we cannot accept that, then we are digging our heads into the sands.Even with Moses back in its ranks it is, however, not going to be easy for the PPP to reverse itself.

One disturbing development is that the party has asked its members not to signal any presidential ambitions. This, it is said, is being done so as to ensure unity. How does signalling presidential ambitions destroy the unity of the party?

How does open competition at this stage split the party if this party is a democratic institution? Unity must not be used as a red herring to safeguard the interests of those who feel that they will lose out if the issue of the presidential candidate is kept on the front-burner.

Whose interests does such a policy serve? How can the party’s leadership ask members who are the backbone of the party not to signal their presidential ambitions? It is the members who have to make such requests to the leaders of the party.

There can only be one logical choice to lead the PPP into the next elections. That choice has been made clear at the last Congress. It is Moses Nagamootoo.

Moses is not a Peeping Tom. This column makes this statement unequivocally; even though it does not wish to be drawn into the mud-slinging and character assassination campaigns that have been taking place within the PPP.

Moses is a political thoroughbred whose experience should be used to help the present government find its way among the many challenges it now faces.

---

---