THE PPP MUST WAKE UP!

Dec 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The PPP leaders must stop and take serious stock of the relationship between the party and the government that it formed after the 2006 General Elections.

Ever since the 2006 elections, the PPP is being sidelined and circumvented. While the principle of the vanguard party can no longer be relevant, this must not be translated to mean that the ruling party should be isolated from influencing policy in Guyana.

While it may not be in a position to make policies, the PPP should never allow itself to become so impotent that it would have to sit on the sidelines while the government does what it pleases.

The government must not be allowed to run roughshod over the party. After all, while the government is a separate and distinct entity from the party, the government came into being because of the party’s victory at the polls and thus the party cannot be marginalised by the ruling administration.

The leaders of party need to speak out against the many wrongs that are taking place within the government. While there is a convention that party leaders should not be seen as criticising the government, the older heads within the leadership of the party must ask themselves who this convention serves. It certainly does not serve the party because it allows the government to do as it pleases.

Party leaders have been disciplined for violating this convention. The most notable case was Khemraj Ramjattan who was hauled over the coals under Cheddi Jagan when he criticised the renewal of the contract of a Commissioner of Police. He was to later face further heat when he questioned what was going on within the security forces during the crime wave. He was hauled before a Disciplinary Committee and was facing a reprimand when he again allegedly did something that aggravated the situation. He was then expelled from the party.

When Mrs. Jagan came out against the withdrawal of state advertisements from the Stabroek News, she was not subject to any disciplinary proceedings. Instead, she was described as a private citizen expressing her opinion, thereby reinforcing the view that within the party there are different strokes for different folks.

The leaders of the party therefore need to speak out strongly and openly about what is taking place within the ruling administration. At the minimum they need to isolate themselves from certain controversial things that are happening, lest their silence be construed as complicity.

The party leaders must show fight. This obviously is easier said than done since the government can use the power of the State to keep opposition within the party in check. The party must also not delude itself into assuming that any criticisms of the Presidency and the government would be detrimental to the unity of the party.

The party leaders may be fearful that criticisms of the President and the government may be interpreted as a sign of disunity within the party. Well, the people out there are neither deaf nor blind. They know very well that there are divisions between the government and the party. They know that the party is not in control of things and has little or no say in what goes on within the country. They know that everything is not right. Therefore, to pretend that everything is cozy and nice is to engage in self-delusion because the people are not deluded about what is taking place. They know very well that the party is being sidelined.

The PPP prides itself as being a revolutionary party. But it seems as if the revolutionary fire died within the party a long time ago because the party is showing no fire in its belly and is unable to stand up and assert itself in the present situation.

The party must show that it is steely. It must show fight. It cannot simply roll over and allow the government to do what it pleases with the party. There are many ways that the party can show fight.

The first is that it can refuse to pass Bills which the government tables in the National Assembly. It had the opportunity recently of making a symbolic act of displeasure. It could have told the government at the last hour that it would not support the recent Bill for US$25M in supplementary provisions.

Even if it could not muster a quorum, it should have been able to muster sufficient votes to deny the government the majority it needed to pass these financial Bills. And if it did so, the government would have seen the writing on the wall.

The leaders of the PPP must learn to fight. They must learn how to express displeasure at the treatment of their comrades. Just recently, it was reported in the news that a senior leader of the party was removed from his job as an Adviser to the government.

The comments made by the General Secretary of the party in response to this report can be described as feeble. Instead of suggesting that the media was asking the wrong person about the alleged removal, the PPP’s General Secretary should have made it clear that while the dismissal was a matter for the government, the party was concerned about the treatment meted out to its comrade and would not sit idly by and allow disrespect to be shown to its leaders.

This is what is meant by showing fight. Unless the PPP leaders do so within the next few months, then the leaders who sacrificed so much to build this party alongside Cheddi Jagan could very well be muscled out of power.