On any given day, the PPP will teach the opposition about politics

Mar 04, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Eric Philips of ACDA is my neighbour, although he doesn’t live right next door. We live in the same small compound where I have to pass his home each time I am coming or going. While driving into the compound, we met, and he expressed horror at my contract termination at UG. Then with a cynical smile (cynical because Eric knows the reality of politics in Guyana), he said; “After this I don’t think the opposition should not go into any tripartite talks.”
The tripartite talks were yet to begin when my firing from UG took place. The opposition went to the first one where Gerhard Ramsaroop and Khemraj Ramjattan brought up my dismissal. At no point did the three APNU representatives – Opposition Leader, David Granger, Deputy Speaker, Deborah Backer and Rupert Roopnaraine – even whisper a single word on the dismissal. From among the ranks of APNU, the famous song of Simon and Garfunkel was playing in their head – “The sound of Silence.”
Was I disappointed? No! Nothing surprises in Guyanese politics. Industrial action at UG lasted five weeks because some dedicated, devoted, nationalistic and principled Guyanese citizens at UG demanded changes at UG and got them. Their energy and relentlessness are things the opposition parties could and should emulate.
The opposition parties, too, should emulate the PPP. We may not like V.S. Naipaul, but we cannot deny his sagacious mind. We may not like a male chauvinist, but if he is a brilliant biologist we have to live with that fact.
We may not like the PPP but in its sixty years of existence, it knows how to play politics, it knows how to fight politics. The PPP knew what it wanted when Cheddi Jagan split from Forbes Burnham in the fifties. Since then, the PPP knows what it wants and its politics have been shaped by what it wants, and what it wants it fights for.
It would be dishonest for any historian or sociologist to deny that the PPP is an aggressive party, schooled and experienced in practical politics. One cannot say the same for the opposition.
So we have the tripartite talks going on between the leadership of the Government headed by the President, APNU and AFC. This writer knows that for the five times the tripartite forum was filled, the opposition has not brought up the role of timeline. In other words, APNU and the AFC have not said to the ruling party that it has six demands and it would request that two of them be implemented within days if not, we cannot continue the confabulation.
At this point, let me make a digression and talk about a man named George Daniels. Young people would not know who George Daniels is. He was the head of the TUC in the seventies, got into a confrontation with President Burnham and fled the country. I met him on Friday when Operation Rescue UG had a post-industrial lime at UG. He told me that he had not been back in Guyana the past 23 years.
While here, he has been advising Operation Rescue UG on the industrial dispute. We talked about power in today’s Guyana. George told me he met with President Ramotar and he, Daniels, brought up the halted subvention to Critchlow Labour College.
I then raised the question of timeline in the discussions stakeholders will have with the President.
George Daniels said that a timeline has to be imposed on any dialogue between a stakeholder and the President, and if he should meet with President Ramotar again and there are requests, he would introduce a timeframe for delivery.
It simply boggles the mind that after five meetings of the tripartite conference, there is no timeframe for State concessions and State delivery
The PPP in the meantime, does what is expected of it in politics. The PPP took the composition of the parliamentary committees to the tripartite table and lost. The PPP wants the committees to be five from ruling party and five from opposition. The opposition majority in Parliament ruled that there will be four for the PPP and five for joint opposition. Last week, APNU and AFC and ruling party met to name their representatives. The PPP did what it thought was politically logical – it is refusing to accept the four/five formula and did not name its delegates to the committees.
The Speaker ruled that the event will be postponed to March 12 for resolution. APNU is mad but the PPP is doing what is in its interest. The opposition should start doing the same.

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On any given day, the PPP will teach the opposition about politics

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