The essence of Mr. Jagdeo as President

Aug 17, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Quite a number of persons have complained to me that my three part series on the attainment of ten years of power by Mr. Jagdeo left out hard facts on what Mr. Jagdeo has done and should not have done and ought to have done.

People have said to me that the assessment was not written for the ordinary person and the articles just do not get to the point about the ten years of Mr. Jagdeo running Guyana. I came home on Saturday night and reread al three evaluations.

I admit that the pieces lack potent examples on just who Mr. Jagdeo is. I do concede that the language should have concentrated more on the unacceptable things Mr. Jagdeo has done in his ten years of stewardship and a keen description of his pitfalls.

However, I believe all three essays capture the essential weaknesses of Mr. Jagdeo that has denied him a positive legacy. What follows are some additional reflections that will stay clear away from any theoretical flow. Let me repeat for all my readers that I think the main fault of Mr. Jagdeo is that he has not studied the nature of Guyanese society in depth. This lies at the heart of his failure as a President.

Mr. Jagdeo also does not understand the difference between the Presidency and a public company or a private institution. This is a dangerous line fault in his exercise of power.

Mr. Jagdeo is correct in pointing to people who have no right to criticize his government because they lack the moral standing to do so. This is an age old problem that Presidents Jagan, Burnham and Hoyte had to endure.

But a president of a country cannot compose policies based on his knowledge of hypocrisy of other actors in society. I would like to offer an example that forever stays in my mind. Dr. Rupert Ropnarine made a film on the colonial experience in Guyana titled, “The Terror and the Time.”

Mr. Miles Fitzpatrick, a wealthy lawyer rented the film and invited the middle class to view it. These were the people that wanted Burnham out. The scene was the lawns of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s home. Invitees had no time for the film. It was an affair of people watching people, people gossiping, and men watching women.

President Burnham probably said to himself; “These are the unaesthetic people that criticize my government; who are they to tell me what to do?” It is disaster for a leader of government then to do what he/she wants to do because some of his/her critics are not credible voices.

I am afraid this is how Mr. Jagdeo runs Guyana. If he finds a fault with Company A or Company B or Mr. John Jones, all of whom are not in favour of his handling of power, he embarks on what he wants to do irrespective of the consequences.

And he probably says to himself, “Who are they to castigate me; are they any better?” Here is where Mr. Jagdeo confuses the role of the presidency and a private organization.

Let us say that an anti-Jagdeo critic has a firm in which workers are underpaid. The consequence of that action is minimal to the country. Actually Guyanese will go about their business and couldn’t be bothered with this businessman.

If Mr. Jagdeo, the President of the country, then decides he will make a policy and his detractors can’t tell him a damn thing because they are in no moral position to do so, then it depends on what Mr. Jagdeo chooses to do. If it is the public sector or the University of Guyana or the NIS, then the consequences can be disastrous.

Mr. Jagdeo has to realize that if John Jones, an anti-Jagdeo activist, oppresses twenty workers in his company, then those are small numbers compare to if Mr. Jagdeo decides to confront the public sector.

Secondly, Mr. Jagdeo has a fault that he should immediately exorcize from his mind — individual possessiveness. It is a post colonial disease – I am the leader, the State belongs to me, I decide who gets what, when, where and how. Mr. Jagdeo is a distinct practitioner of this kind of politics. He emulates Burnham on this score.

Mr. Jagdeo has to realize that no President of this country has ever enjoyed total support or even over sixty percent of support from the Guyanese people. There are some forms of bullying tactics that will not work. The withdrawal of the state subsidy from Critchlow Labour College shows Mr. Jagdeo does not understand the sociological and political make-up of Guyana.