Jagdeo embarrassed East Indians and paid the price

Jan 18, 2012 Letters

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Dear Sir,
The results of the November 2011 General Elections should be a wake-up call for the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic. Now more than ever, there is a need for introspection and a willingness to accept that the party has failed miserably to understand the hurt and betrayal felt by its traditional supporters – the East Indians of this country.
It will be a further act of denial if the PPP/C wants to clutch at the straws to believe that it got any cross-over votes from Afro-Guyanese. Any simple analysis would reflect four basic truths:
1. Blacks voted solidly for APNU; 2 Amerindians votes were divided among AFC, APNU and PPP/C; 3.The PPP/C won the presidency by virtue of its East Indian support base; 4.And lost the parliament on the basis of withdrawal of that support by significant sections of the East Indian population
The East Indians of this country voiced their disgust at the leadership of the PPP/C by the withdrawal of their support by (i) not voting and (ii) by transferal of their support to Khemraj Ramjattan’s AFC.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan built the PPP/C through the dint of hard work, commitment and sacrifice. Bharrat Jagdeo destroyed the PPP/C through greed, arrogance and a megalomaniac personality. Bharrat Jagdeo and Robert Persaud as architects of the PPP/C campaign, epitomize the story of the Emperor’s new clothes. It is the nature of bullies to surround themselves with sycophants who are there simply to offer slavish praise for non-existent virtues.
The PPP/C election campaign was devoid of decency and coherence and trampled on middle class sensibilities and opened the East Indian population to ridicule for its vulgarity and crassness.
The personality of Bharrat Jagdeo was on public display when he started to believe in the myth of his own brilliance and invincibility. It will be the job of social scientists to decipher and segregate his personality, but all of his characteristics point to an insecure and mediocre person.
It is the tragedy of our Nation that such a person had been placed on the national platform of a presidency and has brought the PPP/C to disgrace. The very future of East Indians in this country, which is inextricably linked to the uncertain future of the PPP/C, now faces a most critical dilemma. This is where I wish to take to task the leadership of the PPP/C to allow Bharrat Jagdeo to hijack a party that was rooted in fundamental decency and working class ideology, to become a party that served the needs of a selected group and one that became mired in corruption and scandal.
The first signal that Bharrat Jagdeo was an unstable person was his public criticism and ridicule of former President Mrs. Janet Jagan. It showed a personality lacking in humility and gratitude. His praising of Glenn Lall and Kaieteur News and the withdrawal of Stabroek News advertisements and subsequent criticizing of Kaieteur News whilst quietly supporting Guyana Times was opportunistic and dishonest.
His personal attack on Freddie Kissoon and ‘attempted’ humiliation of Dr. Yesu Persaud reflects the base nature of his character and utmost disrespect for basic decency.
Many writers have already commented on the incestuous relationships he maintained with investors, business associates and friends and the questionable awards of contracts, favours and largesse. It has to be a matter of utmost shame that the PPP/C did not seek to reign in Bharrat Jagdeo immature and destructive antics but instead rewarded him to take a lead role in the campaign for the National Elections 2011.
I guess it was too much to expect that Bharrat Jagdeo would have been gracious at that point to conduct himself very differently.
Every decent-minded person had a sense of revulsion when he referred to the media as carrion crows and vultures (preying on dead flesh). He further degenerated in reiterating his ‘cuss mode’ status and his infamous ‘jackass’ comment. It was tragic to see Bharrat Jagdeo seeking to elevate such debase behaviour into some sort of virtue.
It was a ‘fitting end’ that the high point of the PPP/C campaign was the concert at the Providence Stadium where a largely East Indian crowd was ‘treated’ to a performance by Destra. The inappropriateness and vulgarity of Destra’s performance will haunt East Indian sensitivity for a long time.
The image of a young East Indian girl gyrating and mirroring the vulgarity of Destra was broadcast on National TV. This was PPP/C’s gift to East Indians. Their disregard for the norms of respectful behaviour knew no limits and our disappointment and sense of betrayal and shame had no end.
The elections results could not have been different. This should be no shock or surprise. The campaign was outlandish and vulgar. Traditional supporters were shocked, undecided voters were horrified and the young people could not believe that the PPP/C expects them to give blind support. They rejected being taken for granted.
The verdict is out; the electorate has rejected both Bharrat Jagdeo (this election must be seen as a referendum on his person) and Robert Persaud as campaign manager and strategist.
If the campaign wasn’t bad enough the reaction of Robert Persaud was one of abrasive belligerence at blaming East Indians for the PPP/C loss of majority.
Robert Persaud, a clone of Bharrat Jagdeo, assumed proprietary rights over the East Indians of this country and does not possess the intelligence or integrity to ask himself why large sections of the East Indian population rejected the PPP/C.
This is the tragedy but it brings out two points (a) how much the PPP/C has taken its traditional support base for granted, and (b) that the PPP/C have not recognized that the population is intelligent. It is clear that by and large our population has grown and out-paced the intellectual development of the key campaign strategists — Robert Persaud and Bharrat Jagdeo.The time has now come for the PPP/C to save itself from itself. The first step in doing this is to ask Bharrat Jagdeo and his protégé, Robert Persaud, to remove themselves from the public life of this country. Their continued presence and influence can only lead to an implosion of the PPP/C and a humiliating defeat at the next election.
Thereafter, it is my considered view that His Excellency Donald Ramotar should call for a meeting extraordinaire with individuals and groups who may not be party members per se but sympathetic to the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic. A frank contribution by independently minded persons would be a healthy beginning on the way forward.
Deonarine Persaud

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