We must tap into the ‘leader’ in us to help us find the next president

Oct 09, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
President Bharrat Jagdeo was taken to task by Mr. Adam Harris’ sagacious column, “Leaders would always come under the gun,” (Kaieteur News, September 19), for his trademark intemperate outburst at Mr. Christopher Ram at the meeting for CLICO (Guyana) depositors.
Kaieteur News carried an editorial on September 24, “PPP’s Presidential Candidate,” followed by another one on September 29, “Leaders must be judged.”
Guyana’s authoritarian leadership that has created a stifling and oppressive environment was bemoaned by Ms. Stella Ramsaroop in her equally perceptive column, “Leadership styles can make or break a nation,” (Kaieteur News, October 26).
The President’s contention that other countries are learning from the financial policies of Guyana was emasculated by Mr. Freddie Kissoon in his interrogatory narrative, “What can the leadership of this country teach other nations?” (Kaieteur News, October 3).
I really couldn’t miss their recurring theme on leadership, and just as I was about to pitch in my two cents worth of observation, I was hit by news that some group had nominated retired army Chief of Staff, Brigadier David Granger, as the next PNCR presidential candidate.
Unlike his fellow retired Chief of Staff, Major General Joe Singh, whose name was recently touted as another potential presidential candidate, Mr. Granger actually expressed an interest, and it immediately made a new or different kind of national leader seem rather interesting.
I don’t know whether his advent to the political arena will flourish or fade with time, but it is a breath of fresh air, coming at a time when President Jagdeo’s political DNA is all over government’s failure on hot button issues.
Guyana is once again at war with armed and dangerous criminal elements, that even the police have been reduced to issuing warnings to criminal elements. Corruption is ubiquitous in the region’s most secretive/shady government.
Our foreign-dependent economy continues to squirm like a bushmaster with a broken spine, and VAT continues to add to the insufferable pain of an increasing number of Guyanese.
Paradoxically, some have gone overboard in their praise of the government for undertaking infrastructural works, which are the rudimentary tasks it was elected to do anyway, and even added well-furnished luxury houses, imported vehicles, well-stocked businesses, and a host of other material trappings of the affluent class, to make their praise sound louder.
However, despite all the approbations of progress and development, there is an ever widening gap between the haves and have-nots, which is totally inconsistent with the original ordinary-people-first perspective of the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
Worse, whereas rigged elections and authoritarianism once defined the PNC government, misappropriation of public funds/transferring of public resources and authoritarianism today define the PPP government under the politically juvenile leadership of President Jagdeo.
And that was why when the PPP General Secretary reportedly said recently that his participation in Cabinet outreaches reflected the party’s involvement in what the government is doing; it immediately raised serious questions about whether he or the PPP is politically or professionally fit to provide the leadership this country badly needs.
Picking a leader of a country, such as a president, is the biggest decision any people can make collectively in their lives. In a poor country like Guyana that has been crying out for visionary leadership ever since the British left in 1966, it is a literal life-and-death situation that incurs a special sense of responsibility for leaders to conduct themselves in a rational and respectable manner.
For the PPP and its government under the current leadership, however, two adjectives that readily come to mind in describing them are corrupt and incompetent.
On the one hand, we have a poor visionary for a President given Guyana’s vast potential, and a government in which endemic corruption and incompetence are almost synonymous.
On the other hand, we have the PPP General Secretary, believed by some to have the backing of the President as the party’s 2011 presidential candidate, saying that his party is involved in the same corrupt and inept government, even though for the last decade the Office of the President functioned totally detached from Freedom House.
Now, if the PPP wants to share credit for the so-called good this administration achieved, then it must also be willing to share the harsh criticisms for the myriad bad stuff associated with this administration.
But does the General Secretary really believe there
is no difference between the PPP and its corrupt and incompetent government, or is he placing preservation of the party’s hold on power above and ahead of good, visionary governance?
Either way this means there will be no change if the PPP is returned to power with the General Secretary as the party’s candidate.
Editor, I am sure an overwhelming majority of Guyanese firmly believes endemic corruption ranks right up there among an underperforming economy and a fragile internal security system as areas of major concern.
And that’s exactly why we find ourselves talking with so much desperation these days about the next national leader.
But we all were born with intuitive leadership abilities, as can be attested during our growing years in various spheres of activity, and we need to tap into our innate leadership base to help us discern and then pick the right kind of political leader to lead us in 2011.
Because it takes a leader to recognise a leader, we owe it to the leadership legacy of those who died fighting in battles that we won’t always be helpless followers, and to our posterity, to tap into the ‘leader’ in us so we can find the right leader among us. 2011 is going to be about a leadership test, and success or failure rests with the people of Guyana!
Emile Mervin

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