Jagdeo is no worse than any of his predecessors

Dec 04, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I find myself inclining to the view that the third term dialogue sporadically going on in the press is really the cock’s crow heralding the imminent end of a long painful night, and the approach of a new bright dawn.
If President Jagdeo makes a determined bid for that goal and succeeds, the very act of success could spell closure to the unnaturally prolonged 50-year trauma.
In this letter I am not going to deal with his two tenures as President except to say that he is no worse than any of his predecessors, and as of now he stands head and shoulder above all those whose names are being bandied about as his likely successor.
In his bid he will face two major problems. He will need the support of his party to table an amendment to the constitution and he will need the support of the Opposition, both of which he is not likely to get, and therein lies his great challenge.
I think that amendment should be done, whether or not there is a third term.  It is conceivable that the people of Guyana as a whole sometime in the course of their history may of their own free will want a president to continue for more than two terms.
I think the specific provision should not be changed, but there should be a proviso added authorising Parliament by Proclamation to suspend the limitation and extend the term, and this Proclamation should be supported unanimously by the Government and the Opposition, or by not less than 80 percent of the votes in Parliament. All the parties in Parliament should see the wisdom of that amendment and support it.
That amendment will not help a president seeking to extend his term, as he will yet need the support of the Opposition, but if and when the need arises, the procedure will be simpler.
I suspect President Jagdeo will not get the support of his Party for an amendment. If he is a determined person and not afraid of a fight, he could then proceed to act in a manner that will bring Guyana to the crossroads, and at the end of that exercise the country will either emerge from 50 years of strife and turmoil and embark upon a period of peaceful progress, or remain on the same old road and keep on trying to kill itself.
Ariel Sharon of Israel in late 2005 was faced with the problem in which he could not get the support of his Likud party for some of his programmes.
While he was sitting Prime Minister and head of Government he broke away from Likud and formed his own Kadima party, and in the election that followed his new party was the largest in Parliament.
Jagdeo is now the most popular person in the PPP. There is no longer any royalty in that party or any heir apparent or nobility. All its functionaries were foot soldiers who have promoted themselves, and despite years in politics none of them could by themselves win a seat in Parliament.
This is the time for President Jagdeo to act, when he is Head of State and Government. After that it will be too late. He should take control of that party now, become its official leader and maybe also its General Secretary as Dr. Jagan was, and change the character of the party from Marxist-Leninist to a Liberal Centrist Democratic party.
If there is insuperable resistance he should then just leave and form him own Kadima Party and take the bulk of the party’s supporters with him. The benefit of that will be that the diehard Marxists, who were mostly primary school drop-outs, will be left in the outer darkness, while the President will be free to bring in the intellectuals of the country of all races to work with him. Jagdeo has shown he was never afraid to have bright ones around him.
That done, the next most important step will be for the President and the Leader of the Opposition to seriously move in towards inclusive government and restore the status quo ante as it was in 1953. Together they will have the numbers for that Proclamation. Both parties will have to realise the seriousness of the movement and go into it with sincerity and without one-upmanship or pettifogging bickering.
That has been the dream of almost every Guyanese over all the years of the country’s suffering. It has been demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that neither of those two parties could govern Guyana alone.
Unless something like that is done, it will be business as usual.
Another election will be held, the PPP will win because the opposition just cannot unite under a common acceptable leader, crime will escalate, a new president, who will have no experience and no vision of the country’s needs, will champion some type of external cause and begin his world tours at the peoples’ expense, and generally the country will drag itself along as best it could.
So I think those people who are working for a third term for the President should work a bit harder, the President himself should make his position known, and must realise that if he goes back there for a third time, he must have a clear vision for the country which he must share with the people and work to achieve, his tours must be over, he will have to delegate responsibilities, and stay at home to make sure his ministers work.
Kumar D. Doobay

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