SUPERMAN LIVES ON!

Mar 07, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Another leader of the People’s Progressive Party has indicated that if given the opportunity he would be willing to serve as President. As has been the case with other persons, this is not a declaration of candidacy but simply an indication that if chosen, the person is willing to accept.
The PPP is well aware of what challenges for leadership have done to the party and to this country, and so it is commendable that there is no real fight within the party as to who should succeed President Jagdeo, but rather there are persons who have indicated that if chosen they are ready to accept.
The question that must be asked, therefore, is whether this makes the PPP more democratic in the sense of western liberal democracies which allow for open competition for power. The party had that opportunity during its last Congress. It had a chance to prove to the country that its decisions are made by its membership, through the delegates at the Congress.
The party chose to avoid having the Congress decide on a mechanism to choose the party’s presidential candidate. The party left this matter to the leadership of the party, the very leadership from which the next presidential candidate has to be selected.
The Constitution of Guyana now imposes term limits. What this means is that the concept of a Supreme Maximum leader within a party can be checked if that party is in power because the Constitution now provides for a limit to how long a President can serve. This means that political parties have to constantly throw up new leaders so that it does not find itself in a position whereby it has problems finding suitable presidential candidates.
This is why the PPP has to begin to encourage new leadership, because if it stays in power it will need every ten years to replace its President with a new person. A dose of democracy within the party is therefore good for its health. This will ensure that there is a process of churning out individuals who are capable of filling the leadership voids.
The party therefore cannot continue to adhere to one position when it comes to the Constitution and another one which is counterproductive to the process of finding leaders. It cannot continue at the parliamentary level to support term limits while at the party level it refuses to allow for open competition for leadership. It cannot allow a small clique to decide as to the person who will become the party’s presidential candidate. It should in democratic fashion allow its members the opportunity to decide this question and show to the entire world that it has evolved as a political entity. Given the problems that Guyana faces, leadership is extremely important. This, in fact, has always been so because Guyana’s problems have been so intractable, that it requires a special kind of leadership to resolve, and right now that kind of leadership is not present in the country.
It needs not a grand leader but a great leader. What makes a great leader is not that he was the right person for the job, but the right person for the times.
This country needs a leader that can reconcile its political disputes. It therefore needs a leader that is open to listening and to making major political compromises.
In the economic sphere, this country needs a serious re-examination of the model of development that has been so obediently followed over the past eighteen years. This model has not worked, and what is needed is for someone with a broader vision, not necessarily an economist, but someone who unlike the government is not going to surrender the administration of the country to the international financial institutions simply because their support is critical to acquiring resources.
This country needs a leader who does not have to wait on the World Bank to signal that the priorities for Guyana should be on obtaining qualitative outcomes in education and health, before making these national priorities. It needs someone that will be willing to work with these agencies, but is also willing to listen to what local experts are saying about what needs to be done.
In short, what is required is not any leader for the country. This can always easily be found. What is required is for the right leader for the right times and right now this country is holding its breath and waiting for the moment when it can finally say good riddance to Superman politics.
However, like the comic book hero, Superman is making a comeback and may continue not just for a third term but for far longer.

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SUPERMAN LIVES ON!

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