Intoxication with power destroys rationality

May 04, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The world is old. A few thousand years. The lessons to be learnt are enormous. But we humans don’t want to see. Power blinds us. In leadership, power becomes an invulnerable enemy. The brew of power destroys an oligarch’s capacity to grasp reality.
When tyrants rule over a long period of time, all they can understand is that their grip is tight and strong and no one can unravel it.
In the mind of the fallen Arab leaders, particularly, Mubarak and Gaddafi, it was unthinkable to lose power. As the protests boiled over, there were no signs of brinkmanship. It was not possible in the minds of these tyrants, because power had destroyed the ability to understand changing reality.
In Guyana, after twenty years in which every conceivable violation was practiced with immunity, the PPP has become a prisoner of its own insane imagination.
Torture, imprisonment, killings, unlawful arrest, peremptory dismissal of employees, incredible corruption, horrible mistreatment of citizens, contempt for laws, the media, unions, civil society organizations, just to name a few in the arsenal of depraved power, have gone on in Guyana without protest or confrontation.
As tyrants get away with their excesses, their minds come to accept invincibility, omnipotence and divine rule. If there is any organization that feels that it cannot be chased away from power, it is the PPP in Guyana.
From the top leaders right down to the aspiring ones, these people believe in their minds that Moses Nagamootoo is a fool and he didn’t do a damn thing to shape the results of the last election. Every PPP leader at the top of the pyramid has emblazoned their mind with a one-dimensional explanation as to the outcome of the 2011 results – Indian people, particularly in Berbice, were so happy and content with the achievements of the PPP that they felt the PPP would always win so they did bother to vote.
Make no mistake about it; that silly, insipid notion the PPP leaders truly believe. Out of this phantasmagoria of fiction, they are going to call another general election very soon. The opposition cannot stop it. The process will be lawful and proper. GECOM will be asked to conduct another poll. GECOM will forward a note of the funds that are required. The money will come from the Ministry of Finance.
GECOM will meet and the opposition will demand that it refuse to hold the election until fundamental re-structuring of GECOM takes place. The vote will be three versus three with the Chairman voting to have the poll.
It will be up to the two opposition parties to decide if to boycott or participate. The logical action, given Guyana’s ongoing political tragedy, would be not to take part unless Guyana’s constitution is changed and GECOM is rearranged. But if the AFC and APNU contest, the PPP again will lose. One believes that based on this anticipation, the AFC and APNU will go ahead.
That will be a mistake, but let us speculate why the PPP will lose. First, there is no reason to assume that sugar workers would have changed their minds since November last year. In fact, their negative attitude towards the PPP has worsened.
Secondly, despite what Khemraj Ramjattan thinks, the PPP will go with Ramotar. He is not a winnable candidate. Sam Hinds, Roger Luncheon and other unacceptable personalities on the PPP list will be made into mincemeat by the opposition.
Thirdly, all the weaknesses that AFC and APNU had in the last campaign will be corrected. The AFC didn’t have good management of their campaign last year. They did not concentrate on Region Three. Essequibo was not properly embraced.
This time one suspects that Nagamootoo will be their presidential candidate, with the hugely popular Nigel Hughes in the PM slot. The AFC is going to dent the PPP even further. APNU knows that it did not go all the way to get out the vote in Region Four. I believe a large chunk of those 130,000 absentees are APNU people. This time, APNU will have no choice but to work those numbers tirelessly so they can come out.
The air is still stink and thick with the nastiness of power over the last twenty years. The PPP has nothing going for it. My contestation is that the PPP got 49 percent because it used state resources insanely and that gave the party at least a ten percent advantage over the AFC and APNU.
That 49 percent was made possible by the mistakes of the opposition too. Tyrants never learn. Naked power prevents them from so doing.

Latest News

Intoxication with power destroys rationality

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Rutherford gets big payday from Gujarat Titans at IPL 2025 Mega...

Roach and Seales star as West Indies close in on...

Delroy Tyrrell continues to excel at Oneonta...

Ramdass Royals Crowned Champions of the Inaugural...

KFC Guyana distance self from delayed payment of...

Ravens and Royals ready for epic Elite 16 final...

Features/Columnists

A call for more cultural centres

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Political constants: opportunism, ambition or betrayal

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Intoxication with power destroys rationality

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]