Will there be democratic opening in 2014?

Jan 15, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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If you look into history at the pattern of democratic redirections in authoritarian structures where a tyrannical party sought to dilute its repression and open up, the transformation never came without a change of personnel.
The two phenomenal examples were the USSR under Nikita Khrushchev and China under Deng Xiaoping. In those two countries, internal leadership changes led to political openings. The same happened again in the USSR where the death of the party boss made the reign of Mikhail Gorbachev possible. Fidel Castro is a zealous oppositionist to any form of free enterprise. Once he had remained at the top, Cuba would not have allowed the forms of small private enterprises that are on show today.
The search for a contrary pattern is very hard to find and maybe the law of human nature explains why. Once the dictatorial party remains in the hands of the same aging faces, group-think takes over and transformation becomes impossible. Perhaps the greatest example of progressive redirection in the Caribbean is the death of Burnham and the rise of Desmond Hoyte.
In Guyana, the PPP is not your run-of-the-mill, undemocratic organization. This is a closed, Stalinist structure with pellucid characteristics of messianism and paranoia. The Jagans have left with the PPP the instinct of PPP greatness and its destiny to own
Guyana.
In the PPP’s experience of Guyanese organizations opposing this megalomania, the PPP has incorporated into its psychology the process of paranoia. The PPP hierarchy, from Cheddi Jagan, right down to the hard-working third tier leadership, is afraid of open criticism.
Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan had to be ostracized, because there was fear that their outspokenness would cause the weakening of the government. President Cheddi Jagan himself expressed this fear to Khemraj Ramjattan when Ramjattan called for the retirement of Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis.
To date, Ralph Ramkarran has not written about the occurrences inside that fateful meeting of the executive committee that led to his resignation. One powerful apparatchik told Ramkarran to his face that his column on corruption would invite attacks on the PPP, thereby threatening the PPP’s hold on power. Mr. Ramkarran cannot deny this. If the paranoid streak did not exist in the PPP and the PPP was a less tyrannical party, Ralph Ramkarran’s anti-corruption article would have been discussed, with the meeting ending in hugs and kisses, and Ramkarran would have remained in the hierarchy.
Any political observer hoping for glasnost from the PPP in 2014 will be disappointed.
The out-of-control paranoia will prevent any kind of democratization. The 2011 election results have virtually sealed the fate of the PPP. If ever the paranoia went out of control, it was after the loss of the parliamentary majority. For the PPP, the removal from power is a ghost that haunts it every day. The PPP fears that Parliament is out to displace the PPP from office.
If there are any changes towards a freer, more democratic Guyana, it will not come from inside the PPP. The least quarter to expect changes is from Mr. Ramotar. Few observers and opposition politicians are fully aware of how mediocre and ordinary is Mr. Ramotar. Donald Ramotar has never been a thinker or initiator inside the PPP. He was always a party apparatchik that concurred.
Once there is Luncheon, Teixeira, Bheri Ramsaran, Rohee, Robert Persaud, Jagdeo, Clinton Collymore, Navin Chandrapal, Komal Chand, Kellawan Lall at the PPP’s pyramid, the PPP will continue to see Guyana as belonging to them and the paranoia will grow. If Guyana is to see a loosening of the PPP’s grip on Guyana, it will come from three sources – one inside the PPP, the other two, external.
If the PPP implodes, state power will be difficult to retain and also a galvanized opposition will call for an interim administration. Such a scenario is hardly likely. Secondly, should Ramotar become incapacitated, Sam Hinds will not turn over the Executive to a PPP leader as he did before. He knows he is at the end of his political career and will occupy the presidency. Sam Hinds will most likely move in democratic directions.
Finally, there are strong indications that the ABC countries and the opposition parties have reached their limit with terrible governance by and corruption inside the Government. The ABC may exert more than subtle pressure. The opposition is facing frustration from their supporters, especially the African constituencies of the PNC, to display a more no-nonsense attitude to the PPP’s crass and terrible insensitivities. It will be an intriguing year in which something definitely has to give. Hope you stay around to witness the unfolding of history.

 

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