GUYANA’S LULA

Aug 08, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The presidential candidate of the Peoples Progressive Party is no political spring chicken. He has a wealth of experience under his belt.
He has been highly instrumental in his party’s political successes since 1997 but even moreso since he assumed the position of General Secretary of his party. Under his watch, his party has scored resounding electoral victories over its opponents.
If there is anything that Donald Ramotar knows to do it is how to win elections. And there is little reason also to doubt that given his role since 1997 at the center of his party, that he would know a thing or two more than normal about the policies that can see Guyana continue to develop.
Now being touted as the Lula of Guyana because of the uncanny resemblance between himself and the former Brazilian leader, he is the firm favourite to win this year’s presidential elections.
These elections are months away and fortunes can change overnight. But for the time being, the PPP is the front runner for the elections and is not expected to surrender its lead, not with the sort of opposition that it is likely to face.
Elections can never be taken for granted. They have to be won. And if there is anything that Donald Ramotar knows best, it is how to win elections.
The PPP is known to have the best electoral machinery in the Caribbean. Cheddi Jagan had invested his years in the opposition building a solid electoral base throughout the country and the party has a formidable presence within almost all communities and is making major inroads into opposition territories.
It will be helped in this task by the performance of the government. There can be nit-picking about a welt of issues, including corruption, but overall there can be no denying the economic strides that have been made under the PPP. Guyana is not the same country that it was in 1992 and Guyana will never again go back to the hard days when so many things were short and all hope in the future had been vanquished. It has been a tough ride because the government has not had it easy but the job has, in the main, been done.
The performance of the government must however never be taken for granted. The votes for victory still have to be secured and getting out the vote has since 1997 been the principal responsibility of the General Secretary of the party.
Donald Ramotar has not failed his party in this regard. He has been the architect of the PPP’s commanding electoral victories in the 1997, 2001 and 2006 elections. He played a less pivotal role in the 1992 elections which saw the PPP being restored to power after twenty eight years in the political opposition.
No party rules forever. And one day the PPP will lose power. That day however is not likely to be this year.
The PPP goes to the polls this year on the backs of the achievements of the Jagdeo presidency. And it is understandable that any candidate that the PPP selects would be expected to run on the track-record of the present regime. Not to run on that record would be to suggest that government has failed.
As such, when the PPP’s presidential candidate says that he will be running on the achievements of the government and that the president will have an input in the new administration, these statements must be understood in the context of the party not disowning the record of the Jagdeo administration.
Bharrat Jagdeo will go down in history as the most popular president this country has ever had. He will also be credited with achieving the most economically in the country’s history.
Against this background, what else does one expect the ruling party’s candidate to say? He has to associate himself with that record of achievements but as all presidents, he would eventually have to develop his own style and his own policies.
The outgoing president has built an excellent economic track record by obediently following the prescriptions of the international financial institutions. He has not deviated from that script. There have not been too many major original proposals when it comes to the running of the economy.
The powerful business sector in Guyana and the international community would like assurances that the policies put in place will not be uprooted. The IMF and World Bank, for one, consider Guyana as their most successful recipient. They would not like to see changes to what they have implemented.
Donald Ramotar’s statement that the outgoing president will have an input in the new administration must therefore be taken in the context of assuaging the donor community and the anxieties of the business community.
The local business community is keen on continuity. They would like nothing better than for the outgoing president to be given a third term.
But that will not happen. The next best thing therefore is for them to be given the assurance that there will be continuity.
It is doubtful however whether Donald Ramotar will allow himself to be overshadowed by anyone. He has been a powerful force behind the scenes in his party. And he is no political pushover. As someone schooled in economics himself, he would have his own ideas of where the country needs to go but has to be politically prudent in not sending the wrong signals.
He has a great opportunity to become the next Lula rather than the Donald of Guyana. But to do this, he would eventually have to make some hard choices and to put distance between himself and certain predatory sections of the business class. That time will come and Guyana’s Lula will shine.

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