WHEN A PRESIDENT BECOMES A PRIVATE CITIZEN

Mar 24, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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This is an uneasy and unsettling period for the opportunists within our society. With so many aspirants vying for the presidential candidate of the ruling party, the opportunists have found themselves in a most uncomfortable and unprecedented situation of not knowing just who to throw their support behind.
In the meantime, there are forces within society who are advocating for a third term for the President even though they know that this is now virtually impossible. Yet this horse is being whipped out of a sense of showing appreciation to a leader under whose remit they have done well. It is also a way of ensuring that the leader they back enjoys some measure of support in his remaining time as President. For once a likely successor emerges, the incumbent will be a forgotten figure.
The failure of any front runner in the race for the PPP’s presidential candidate to emerge has left the opportunists in a quandary. They do not know where to throw their support. They now know for sure that within the next year and half, Bharrat Jagdeo will become a private citizen. Within months of this happening, he will be forgotten in this country.
It has happened before.  When Desmond Hoyte was President he was surrounded by some persons who were seeking their own benefits. These individuals were willing to kiss the dirt that Hoyte walked on. If he attended a function and they were present, they laughed at every attempt he made at a joke. Regardless of whether they found any light remark he made funny, they laughed heartily. When he said something serious, they nodded their heads in agreement, regardless of whether they understood what he was saying.
We know these types. They surround the power makers in Guyana like ants surround sugar. They love to be in the limelight and love to ingratiate themselves with the powerful. But once the power makers would have left political office, it is as we would say in Guyana, “out of sight, out of mind.”
We saw that too with Desmond Hoyte. No sooner had he lost the Presidency, many of those who formed part of a large grouping that toasted his achievements, abandoned him. Many of those who were once his well-wishers and ardent fans, wanted nothing to do with him. At times they were even embarrassed to be seen speaking with him.
So it will be for Bharrat Jagdeo. When he leaves office in 2011, he will know for sure who his true friends are. Many of those who now bask in his company and sing his praises – when he is within earshot that is – will not want anything to do with him. He will be forgotten within weeks of leaving high office. He will be just another private citizen.
The opportunists will instead gravitate towards the new President. In fact there are signs that some persons are anxious to know just who will be the PPP’s presidential candidate so that they can begin to ingratiate themselves with the future President of Guyana.
However, the PPP has not made up its mind. It has not yet decided on who will lead the party into the next general elections. Once a name is announced, the opportunists will make their transition towards supporting that individual and will make him feel that he is God’s gift to Guyana.
I use the word, ‘’he” not out of a lack of gender sensitivity. It is almost certain that whoever is chosen to lead the PPP will be a male. So far there have been no females who have been touted as possible political aspirants. But whoever is chosen will become popular overnight.
In the meantime, it is anticipated that some persons will try to win the favour of all the possible political aspirants and try not to aggravate any of them since they would not wish to find disfavour with someone who may within the next eighteen months assume the Presidency of Guyana.
The opportunists within our midst know how to manoeuvre. At this early stage, they will not throw their support behind any particular candidate.  But the traditional enthusiastic support they have given to the incumbent President will also begin to wane because they would not wish to be seen to be too chummy with the incumbent, lest this offends who eventually succeeds him.
At the end of all this shifting and shuffling of loyalties, someone is likely to emerge as the PPP’s presidential candidate and will be made to feel that he is God’s answer to this country, and even more so made to feel that he has always had the love and support of those who wish only to curry favour.
You do not need a doctorate to know these things. Once you have lived in Guyana or studied its politics long enough, these things would have revealed themselves.

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