THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Sep 05, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party may be setting himself up for an imminent fall. He has emerged as a frontrunner and seemingly the government’s choice to become his party’s presidential nod, but what he may not have realized is the cunningness of the forces surrounding him which could precipitate his fall from grace.
The General Secretary (GS) has appeared on a Cabinet outreach in Region 3 even though there has been no immediate announcement of him as a member of the Cabinet. This appearance was shamelessly explained as representing the role of the party within the government.
There is however no legal, conventional or ethical justification for this practice. It is highly improper for a political party to have a direct representative within the Cabinet, and a person of the General Secretary’s honesty and integrity ought never to have fallen into this trap. It is improper for a party office-holder, who is not a member of the Cabinet, to appear on a Cabinet platform.
The party does not need a representative in Cabinet. The Constitution of Guyana provides for the persons selected for the National Assembly to come from the party’s list of candidates. The Cabinet itself comprises persons drawn from the party’s election list of candidates, but no one is there within Cabinet as a representative of the ruling party.
If the General Secretary’s advisers feel that his presence within Cabinet will enhance his public appeal and allow him to become known to the electorate, they are missing the bigger picture. They may be missing the fact that the promotion of the GS could be a prelude to his eventual fall from grace.
The decision as to who will lead the PPP into the next elections is going to be determined outside of Freedom House. The PPP and the government have been captured by the bourgeoisie class. This class is in turn dominated by a powerful group of business persons with friends within the ruling party and government. They have done very well over the past few years.
This class wants to safeguard the personal gains its members have made since the last election, which has seen tremendous inroads into businesses. This class is concerned as to what will happen when President Jagdeo leaves office. They are concerned that their investments could be threatened by someone in the top seat who may not be sympathetic to their methods and gains. This class has tremendous clout, and they will want to dictate that whoever emerges as the PPP’s presidential candidate will not cause problems for their investments.
It does not seem as if a deal for a third term will materialize and therefore the alternative will be to find a candidate that will not upset the plans of this powerful class.
There are other persons who are interested in the party’s presidential candidate But the GS emerged as one of the early frontrunners. Just as the GS was getting a head start over his rivals, there has been the release of the findings of a so-called poll which shows that another individual is the popular choice to lead the party. This poll, regardless of the credibility that is attached to it, will create doubts and divisions within the ruling party, since it suggests that the candidate who it seems as if the government is endorsing is not a popular choice.
This can lead to the same scenario that took place after the death of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, when there was a competition for succession which was exploited by the astute and cunning Mrs. Jagan. In the end, she assumed the leadership after the other candidates fell away.
The same script is in the making. A contest between two main candidates is being manufactured. And after these two would have exhausted themselves trying to prevail over the other, the government and the bourgeoisie will intervene and facilitate the ascendancy of their man for the top job.
If the GS therefore cannot see that he is about to fall from grace, he ought not to be in politics in the first place. He must tread carefully and take the moral high ground. He must insist that before he appears on another government platform that he should be formally appointed as a minister of the government.
If his demand is met with procrastination, then it means that he is being set up for the fall and that the bourgeoisie class has settled for a younger person as their man for the job.

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THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

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