Down with defectors, detractors and deserters!

Jul 14, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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The People’s Progressive Party has suffered another panic attack. The first attack had occurred in the general and regional elections of November 2011. The Party, for the first time in five general elections, lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly and was forced to form a minority administration.
The second occurred as a consequence of the first. The PPPC administration faced the defeat of several of its Bills by the majority in the National Assembly in March and June. The third, perhaps the ‘unkindest’ cut, was a slew of short, sharp strokes in the form of critical newspaper articles written by former PPP ‘comrades.’
The Party’s twice-postponed 30th Congress, now due to be held at J.C. Chandisingh Secondary School, in Port Mourant, Corentyne, from 2nd-4th August, has become the focus of unfavourable comment. The Congress theme – “Strengthen the Party, Build Unity, Advance Democracy”- is particularly appropriate. It is an acknowledgement of the Party’s lack of strength, lack of unity and lack of democracy. It is also a realisation of the public’s lack of confidence in the Party.
The symptoms of panic – the postponement of the Congress for two years, the tsunami of noisy public resentment and disappointment, the attacks on former ‘comrades’, the selection of the Congress location, the revival of veneration of Cheddi and Janet Jagan, and the nervous media blitz – all indicate more cowardice than confidence.
The Party is desperately seeking remedies for its many ailments by recapturing the sympathy of the devotees. Returning to the birthplace of its charismatic co-founder Cheddi Jagan and retracing the sites of its skirmishes on the battleground of the general elections where its strongholds were overrun by the Alliance For Change are sure signs of fright.
It is from the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, the PPP’s traditional heartland, that former Central Committee member Moses Veerasammy Nagamootoo and Veerasammy Ramayya come. Both are from Whim Village – a mere 5 km from the PPP citadel at Port Mourant. Both are now Alliance for Change MPs. Both exploited the deep apathy and livid antipathy among disaffected PPP supporters and engineered the greatest loss of votes at the 2011 elections.
The AFC now boasts three MPs (out of seven) from the Corentyne, a fact which the PPP knows that it cannot ignore. The successful invasion of the Corentyne opens the prospect of the capture of other ‘strongholds’ by APNU and AFC forces as the rebellion spreads.
PPP Congresses have always had contrived outcomes. Delegates, with their hands in a three-fingered salute and the stirring lyrics of the battle song “Oh Fighting Men” on their lips, renew the vows of an anachronistic creed and reenact the rites of unity. They participate in a process of indirect election which, amazingly, repeatedly returns largely unchallenged and unchanging lists of leaders to the PPP’s powerful Central and Executive Committees.
Congress elections are designed to retain the core group of leaders, to reward the compliant, to remove rebels and to recruit ‘candidate’ members to be groomed for leadership. There are few surprises, since the ‘formula’ for its composition has been pre-determined.  Campaigning, though discountenanced, does take place to ensure that the elite ‘nomenklatura’ remains in office. Party members in their districts around the country elect about 1,000 delegates to the triennial congress; they in turn elect the thirty-five members of the Central Committee; they in turn elect the 15 members of the ‘politburo’ or Executive Committee who, in turn, appoint Party ‘apparatchiks’.
Members actually play no part in the direct election of their leaders and presidential candidate. The result is that delegates, much less members, do not have a clue about the identities of their leaders until an announcement is made several days later. Debate is restricted; dissent is muted; discontent is smothered.
The PPP has become senile. It was built over six decades ago on the cult of the Jagans, the myth of Marxism-Leninism, and the legend of the struggles against colonialism and capitalism a long time ago. These articles of faith once imparted a special sense of mission and rallied generations of supporters.
Change has come. Cheddi Jagan died in March 1997 while his wife, Janet Jagan, died twelve years later in March 2009. Their lives are largely meaningless to most living Guyanese who know little of them. The oxygen was sucked out of socialism and its theoretical roots in Marxism-Leninism with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics over twenty years ago. Old-fashioned ‘colonialism’ disappeared from Guyana forty-seven years ago and capitalism flourishes, but only for a few.
The Central Committee has admitted that the Party made mistakes. Blame has been ascribed not to serving officials who mismanage the Party, but to those who have departed. They have been described as “detractors” and “defectors.” Those are the ones who have been accused of attempts to expose corruption, a move that the Party feels is “meant to influence delegates to revolt, at its upcoming congress.”
The writing is on the wall. The PPP is the sick man of Guyanese politics.  Day by day, more and more disillusioned and disappointed members are quitting to join the ranks of ‘defectors, detractors and deserters.’

 

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