Politics that just does not make sense at all

Aug 29, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

These are the facts. Under the presidency of Bharrat Jagdeo, his reign lasted twelve years. During those years, Mr. Jagdeo’s party canopied his authority by a majority in parliament. It meant therefore that Mr. Jagdeo had unhindered power except for the role of the judiciary.
In his time in office, Mr. Jagdeo made a number of decisions that were angrily rejected by the Opposition and found disapproval by a substantial percentage of the population but Mr. Jagdeo never backed down. The instances are too many to be cited. Mr. Jagdeo embarked on some projects that he felt were his babies and he persisted with them. The three notable ones were the modernization of the Skeldon sugar factory, which to date is the largest state investment since self government in the fifties, the Marriot Hotel and the Amalia hydro-power project, which if it had happened, would have been the largest financial expenditure on any investment in the country’s history
Speaking at the National Economic Forum last week at the Convention Centre, Mr. Jagdeo, with reference to the exodus of the Sithe/Global investors after the PNC failed to approve Amaila said, “They killed the hydro.” He referred to people like Raymond Gaskin, Christopher Ram and Professor Clive Thomas. In an angry mood, he concluded that Amaila was a significant loss to the entire nation.
The profound meaning of Mr. Jagdeo’s words should not be lost on the citizenry of this nation and his very words could be used as a platform for changing the nasty political mood that has undermined Guyana’s future since the fifties. Before we develop our point, let us stress that Amaila was very close to the heart of Mr. Jagdeo, so close that Professor Thomas publicly opined that he thought this was Mr. Jagdeo’s creation of his legacy.
If Mr. Jagdeo can publicly admit that a group of academics derailed his legacy then surely it is an admission that the Government has detractors that are strategically placed. It is an admission that there are poles of power in Guyana that the ruling party cannot conquer, and those poles are formidable voices.

It follows then that the most logical thing to do is to initiate a process of dialogue. If you refuse to talk, and according to Mr. Jagdeo, the country loses out, then such politics makes no sense at all.
You are openly confessing to the nation that there are groups in Guyana that can intensively hurt major policies that are important to the Government and the country. Then any student around the world that heard those words of Mr. Jagdeo in reference to the Opposition, “they kill hydro,” would say; “then, why don’t they talk?” This is not only logical but commonsensical. We don’t know as yet what will happen with Amaila but coming up next is the anti-money laundering Bill. Again, we see the story of poles of power. If you cannot have your anti-money laundering Bill because an Opposition group can kill it, then why don’t you talk to them?
One obscure dimension of Mr. Jagdeo’s admission is that PPP constituents who for the past twenty years (since the PPP came to power in 1992) have been migrating in colossal numbers may become even more pessimistic about their country’s future and hurry to leave. One must remember that there are sizeable numbers of Indian people who do not want the PNC to rule because they are either racist, anti-PNC or believe the PNC did too much bad things when they were in power therefore they should not govern again.
Here comes Mr. Jagdeo and says to these numbers, “the Opposition kill hydro-power.” Now, I am not referring to young Indians who have no memory of the seventies and eighties. I am pointing to those Indians in their fifties and onwards who may take Jagdeo seriously and say; “look, you heard what Mr. Jagdeo said; trouble is coming again let’s leave.” But what about the young Indians who have chosen to stick with the PPP? What happens to their minds when they hear Mr. Jagdeo crying about Opposition power?
The latest census is not officially published but Dr. Rishi Thakur of the Berbice campus told me that when you live in Berbice, then you see in a better way how rapidly decreasing is the Indian population. The ghost that is haunting the PPP is that Indian migration far outstrips any other ethnic group in this country. History is both poetic and cruel and the cruel part may come back to hurt the PPP in ways that are unimaginable. The PPP should begin the healing process.

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Politics that just does not make sense at all

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