THE GS IS THE RIGHT MAN TO PREPARE THE PPP FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS

Jan 03, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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For the People’s Progressive Party this year will be very important. Local government elections are scheduled to be held this year and the party has to begin also to fine tune its machinery for next year’s general elections.
The party therefore needs to settle and settle quickly its choice for its presidential candidate, a decision which from all accounts will be made by the Executive and Central committees of the party. It also has to avoid being deflected by issues which can take up a great deal of its time and lead to the perception that all is not right within the party. This is all the more reason for the party to determine early the person to succeed President Bharrat Jagdeo
While the PPP may assume that it will win the next elections, it cannot afford to become complacent. There is still a tremendous amount of work to do, especially in relation to the claims and objections period leading up to both elections. Given the problems that arose with source documents during the registration process, there is likely to be thousands of PPP supporters who will not be in the register of registrants and thus the PPP has to begin to mobilize its constituencies to ensure that none of its supporters are disenfranchised in the run-up to both local government and national elections.
The local government elections will be an important referendum for the party to gauge its popular support. The problem with the PPP over the years, particularly within the NDC system, is that it has been unable to gather sufficient capable persons within communities to take up the positions within these councils, and one really serious problem that has arisen over the years is the obvious lack of talent in many of these councils.
This is an area that the General Secretary needs to examine as part of the party’s preparation for local government elections. What is needed is for the party to strike a balance between loyalty and competence because for too long the stress of loyalty has hamstrung the party by not providing sufficient persons with the competence to undertake the management of the many councils on which the party is represented.
The General Secretary of the PPP should therefore be mandated to immediately begin to canvass within the party’s constituencies for suitable talent and to look beyond the party to find men and women who can assume roles as councilors after the next local government elections.
In the General Secretary, the PPP actually has the right individual for the present circumstances. He is an older head and is extremely matured and experienced. He does not possess the hubris that others in the party display. He will listen to what his constituents have to say and try to assuage whatever differences exist.
And right now there are serious issues within the party. These issues may not have led to any major fissures but there are concerns, for example, within the PPP support–base about the historical, not just recent, marginalization of some of the staunch supporters of the party. Just a few days ago, a full-page advertisement appeared in this newspaper calling on the supporters of the party to retake control of their organization and urging that the party retain faithfulness to the ideals of the Jagans.
The loss of the Jagans now means that there is no authoritative figure within the party who can be identified as the de facto leader. And this now makes the party vulnerable to the powerful business class that from all accounts already has the government in its orbit. The party has to guard against being co-opted by this class, which has the money to do this.
In the General Secretary, there is someone of the temperament to resist the party going down this route and to allow it to stay committed to the working class while beginning early preparation for local government and national elections.
The PPP should therefore dispatch the GS immediately to begin this search for talent within its constituencies because with a changed system of local government elections, the party will have to identify those persons that it will be putting up as candidates within the new constituencies. The public will need to identify with those individuals.
The GS has to therefore begin to go out and scout for talent. The party cannot rely on the same set of individuals that it has been over the years. Many of these individuals have not delivered and have become disliked within the communities. There is a need for new talent and the immediate task is to find this talent and to then have those identified begin the hard work of ensuring that no supporter is disenfranchised.

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