After a while life stands still: Sam Hinds again

Oct 18, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It was Mr. Jagdeo who, while addressing an audience at the Convention Centre, to celebrate his UN award of Champion of the Earth, carped on the existence of a group of critics that he called old. It becomes very funny and surely embarrassing for Mr. Jagdeo that Mr. Sam Hinds at 69 is the PM candidate for the PPP for the fifth time. It is a strategy that defies logic and commonsense.
First, the entire population of Guyana knows that a young bright face is needed on the political horizon. Secondly, that desire comes from the fact that 60 percent of our population is under the age of 35.
Thirdly, logic has taken over the entire world, not just a part of it – citizens want to see new faces in their political parties. It is called the desire for change. The Sam Hinds selection has no rationality to it for reasons that are countless.
Mr. Hinds is not an enduringly great politician. In all honesty, Mr. Hinds is not your enthralling, charismatic performer. He had nineteen years to carve out a legacy for himself. Mr. Hinds has lived his political career in a cocoon of shadows. All the big PPP leaders have overshadowed him. It seems that Mr. Hinds has been content to be a subordinate actor. At this stage in the game, when the PPP is facing a resurgent PNC and an optimistic AFC with no Jagan presence, is Sam Hinds the right choice?
The answer is ‘no’ because after four appearances, people want to see a new face on stage. But there is a big “but”. But who cares how many times the guy sang on stage. If he could sing let him sing. Mick Jagger, Paul McCarthy are in their early seventies and are still catching large audiences. They can sing and they have past performances that when you remember them, they titillate you and you want to see them back on stage.
Sam does not do that to you. Sam has been self-effacing for nineteen years. Sam has not left past thrills so that when we remember, they excite us and we are eager to say, “Play it again, Sam.” (famous line in political journalism that was born from a scene in the classic movie, “Casablanca”)
Let us settle one thing before we go on. It is a social law in Guyana that in national elections, there must be a multi-racial ticket at the top- Indian and African. It meant therefore that the PPP had to find an African Guyanese for the PM slot. So the question that has to be asked is; couldn’t the PPP find a Nigel Hughes, Mark Benschop, James Bond from among their ranks?
What must weigh heavy on the minds of the electorate is that this guy has been the PM candidate four times. Unless philosophical deconstruction has created a new meaning to arithmetic, four means, one time, then a second time, then a third time, then a fourth time. Surely, a fifth time is too much.
When life goes through these endless cycles, it begins to stand still.
From where I stand, a young candidate, preferably a woman, would have posed headaches for APNU and AFC. The PPP choice of Sam Hinds cannot place the AFC and APNU in any danger. Mr. Hinds is not the kind to scare the opposition. My opinion is that Hinds’ selection will be seriously questioned by young people. The PPP will fire back with an unintellectual, jejune almost stupid reply.
It goes like this; “But isn’t Granger and Roopnarine near to Hinds’ age? Of course Trotman and Ramjattan are not in their thirties.” I am positive this will be their reaction to criticism of Hinds’ appointment.
They will miss the point badly. Even though Mr. Granger is 65, he is still a new face. He has not been around as the PM pick four times before. The same applies to Roopnaraine and Trotman. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the take from editorials and fellow analysts on the Sam Hinds choice.
How can one justify this strategy in a country with a young population? How can any commentator see Hinds as a more appropriate choice than some of the people in the PPP itself? There is an old Greek saying from ancient times; “Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” The Sam Hinds selection is the largest indication to date that the PPP has lost its sanity.

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