The PPP can lose the elections if the opposition does its work

Jun 18, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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I have read and I have heard many political observers opine that the PPP will still win the next general elections, though it may likely be with a reduced majority or even a minority position in Parliament.
How many of these observers go into the villages and districts of this country and talk to people?  You have to talk to the people of Guyana about what is taking place in their country before you can make such a judgement.
The reason behind a prediction of a PPP victory is the perception that East Indians are not yet ready to break with racial voting.
I do not accept this kind of thinking.  There has always been a certain level of disrespect for PPP leaders among Indians. Indians are not really enamoured with PPP leaders.
They know that they are incompetent, unprincipled, arrogant and corrupt. Indians vote for the PPP as an organization and not for specific PPP leaders.
I suppose Clement Rohee understands this, that is why he contemplates joining the race for his party’s presidential nomination. Rohee knows that whether he is Black or Portuguese, Indians are going to vote not for Clement Rohee but for the PPP. One of the most enduring caricatures in Caribbean politics is the PPP’s relationship with its voters. The Indians vote to put into power, politicians that they have no admiration for.
PPP leaders walk tall among the rural constituencies, carrying with them the illusion that they are the people’s choices. That is the delusion they live in. Indians at the psychological level do not even like PPP leaders but the reality is that these are the politicians they have to relate to because they are in power.
It would give the PPP monarchs a full-blown heart attack if they know how Indians feel about them. From the length and breadth of this country, Indians think that Mr. This or Mr. That at Freedom House is a fool.  Here is where they make the separation between party and individual. I have heard countless Indians say the most disparaging things about PPP princes, but when it is time to vote, they put the PPP back in power. For many analysts, these people exercise their franchise against the PNC and African Guyanese rather than for the people that are on the PPP’s list.
After 18 years of PPP’s domination, I believe Indians have become amenable to political persuasion against the PPP.  There had to come a point in time where the PPP would have crossed the line and their constituencies would have begun to reject them.  I believe that time has come.
Indians from the three counties of this country are fed up with the failure of the PPP.  The key to them changing their voting pattern is for opposition personalities to go into the villages and speak to these people, to explain to them the evil that has taken over their country.
There are many social pathologies that characterize the rule of Freedom House that Indian people would revolt against once these things are properly outlined to them. I can cite three of them that opposition parties need to strategize on.
One is the alleged mistreatment of his wife by the President. In most people’s mind, there will be a feeling of outrage when they hear that the President of their country has been accused of abusive behaviour by his wife. In most countries, this will definitely be a huge factor in an election campaign.
Secondly, the role of crime. Indians must be told in no uncertain terms, that the Guyana Government does not want police personnel from the US and the UK to be based within the Guyana Police Force, because PPP leaders do not want to be exposed for their corrupt transactions.  It must be explained to Indians that there is a direct connection between unsolved crimes and police incompetence and police corruption which have as its epicenter, the refusal of the PPP to do what other Caribbean Governments have done – put Scotland Yard and FBI officials to work with the local enforcement agencies
Thirdly, corruption is the factor that will help to destroy the PPP at the next election. Indians know that there is large scale theft among the ruling cabal and such kleptomania has made Guyana into one of the most corrupt countries in the world. There are more issues that the opposition will have to lecture the Indian people on, but I believe these three are too crucial not to be given maximum coverage.
To date, the largest indication that Freedom House has become paranoid about this amenability to opposition persuasion is the treatment of that Canter-truck owner who transported the school children from Patentia on the West Bank to Georgetown to protest the police killing of 16-year-old Kelvin Fraser.
It was not hard to miss the cruelty involved. After charging him with three offences, they wanted to destroy his vehicle so as to send home a lesson to all Indian villages.
Even after the courts ordered the release of the man’s property, there was no willingness on the part of the police to adhere to the court edict.  The fear has begun to step in that the election will be lost. The ball is now in the court of the opposition.

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