A Leader for Guyana

Aug 19, 2008 Editorial

There has been much discussion and speculation in the media on the probable Presidential candidate of the PPP for the 2011 general elections.

Several names were floated and their prospects assessed based primarily on the opinions of the Central Executive of the party.

It was alleged, for instance, that the chances of one potential nominee were severely damaged because he had chosen not to become a minister in the Government, and thereby, presumably, garnering experience for the Presidency.

We believe that the discussion is somewhat precipitate and that there is a prior threshold question that first needs to be answered as to what kind of leader Guyana needs at this time of its history, before we get around to deciding who might best possess the requisite qualities for the role.

If we are going to choose a candidate for any position, surely it makes sense to have some criteria, generated by the demands of the job, by which we can evaluate the suitability of the applicants for the position.

So what are some of the qualities we need in the next President of Guyana? First and foremost, we believe that the individual cannot be a polarising figure, that is, someone seen as so partisan that he/she automatically raises the hackles of those who may not have voted or did not vote for him.

Our politics have so divided our nation since Independence that we need a figure that can rally most of us around the Flag of Guyana, so that we can finally get on with the task of nation building.

We recently had occasion to reflect on the history of the first Executive President, Mr Forbes Burnham; and while no one can doubt his commitment to the development of our country, we can possibly agree that his signal failure was his inability to breach the political divide that separates our people.
And so it has been for all the succeeding Presidents. We have to do better.

A second quality demanded is financial probity. Charges of corruption dogged the previous regime and have permeated copiously into the present one, to such an extent that it demotivates even patriotic Guyanese from placing their shoulders to the wheel of furthering Guyana’s interests.

In a small and poor economy such as ours, the national pie is not that large as in the developed countries, where much of the same pilfering goes one but does not have the equivalent devastating effects.

A President will have to look beyond friends and the party faithful when the national patrimony is at stake. We are in the midst of an ever-widening scandal in which the laws of Guyana were flagrantly violated so as to confer benefits on an admitted friend of the President.

The next President would have to be an individual who has been scrupulously clean and who would have to hone to the straight and narrow in his future dealings, to rebuild the public trust in the Presidency.

What of experience? The sad reality is that the history of Guyana has not shown us that success as a minister is any guarantor of good performance as a President. All the Presidents of Guyana up to now have been ministers, and we are still in a fine pickle.

This is not to say that an appreciation of the workings of Government would not be helpful – but this is not only gained by being a minister.

An analogy can be drawn from the world of business. At one time or another, depending on the external environment, the chief executives of corporations were drawn from their manufacturing, financial, or sales executive pools.

It was illustrated in the press that there are leaders who have served the Government in several other capacities than as ministers, and it ought to be analysed as to whether these other experiences would be helpful to the demands on the Presidency of Guyana.

Within the confines of an editorial, it is impossible to list all the qualities that are desirable in our next President. And in fact it is not even necessary.

In a democracy, we are given the opportunity to choose our leaders, so it is incumbent on all of us — both citizens and party insiders — to reflect on the needs of our country before the need of inflated egos when fulfilling that duty.

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A Leader for Guyana

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