MONEY GALORE!

Sep 12, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The result of next year’s general and regional elections is going to be decided by a small, powerful and stinking-rich group of individuals.

The people of Guyana will vote in next year’s elections. That vote is going to be free and fair. The people will have their say. But the people’s minds will be made up for them long before polling day.

The people will vote for the party and candidates of their choice, but they will end up having very little to choose from because by the time the campaigning ends, the oligarchs in Guyana would have spent billions of dollars in convincing the people that they should vote for the candidate of the oligarchs.

The polls therefore will be free. The people will choose and they will exercise that choice freely. But that choice is not going to be based on policies; it is not going to based on manifestos; it is not going to even be based on race. Next year’s elections will see something remarkable. The winners are going to obtain votes across racial boundaries. They are going to command votes across traditional constituencies. They are going to make inroads that have never before been made.

And this will have nothing to do with the favoured candidate. It will have nothing to do with ethnic voting. It will have nothing to do with traditional allegiances. It will have nothing to do with policies and accomplishments or even with promises.

It will have everything to do with the oligarchy who will throw so much money behind the ruling party that the people will be convinced that the PPP is the best party and the people’s vote will allow that party to them to win a landslide, whoever is chosen as the presidential candidate.

The obsession with who will emerge as the PPP presidential candidate is therefore misplaced. Whoever is the candidate will have to enjoy the support of the oligarchy, since it is the new oligarchy that will fund the bulk of the PPP’s election campaign.

Those overseas groups and rich overseas businessmen who are deluding themselves into feeling that the ruling party needs their money and support for the next elections, need to take a reality check. The PPP no longer needs overseas donations because the bulk of the PPP’s campaign funds for 2011 is going to come from the new oligarchy, and that money will come from within Guyana.

The oligarchy are the ones who are going to decide who gets the nod as the presidential candidate of the ruling party and they are ones who are going to call the shots during the campaign.

The PPP cannot lose next year’s elections, because the money that is going to be spent on their campaign will dwarf the combined campaign spending of all the opposition parties.

The new oligarchy cannot contemplate the PPP losing the elections. If the PPP loses the next elections, the oligarchy has no guarantees about the future of the massive wealth that they have earned over the past few years in Guyana, and therefore the oligarchy is going to throw billions, not millions, behind the PPP’s campaign for office.

With that is going to come something that the people of Guyana have never seen before. The best marketing resources are going to be at the disposal of the ruling party. Full page ads will be taken out daily. Huge electronic billboards singing the praises of the ruling party will be erected all around the city; and the electronic media will be swamped with infomercials about the progress made under the PPP.

Money is not going to be the problem. The oligarchy will recruit some of the best names in campaign management. The political rallies will become like rock concerts. The levels of entertainment will be taken to heights never before seen. Some of the top entertainers are going to be recruited to perform at these rallies and the crowds will be rolled into a frenzy.

The government will also begin to roll out massive development for the people next year. A massive public works programme is going to be unveiled. Thousands of house lots are going to be distributed. A construction boom is going to follow. Then there are big projects such as the bridge across the Corentyne River, a road to Brazil, a road to Amaila Falls. These will create thousands of jobs and with the gold boom still taking place, the people will have little time to bother with what the opposition has to say.

With this onslaught, there is no way that the opposition, combined or splintered, stands any chance against the ruling party. The voices of dissent and opposition will hardly be audible.