The PPP has never won an election using ideas

Jan 22, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

All Donald Ramotar wanted to do was to pose with his casual top and denim jeans and do the routine stuff – meet villagers, open conferences, travel abroad. He liked that. That was his idea of the Presidency. If he wasn’t stopped in his tracks, that was what Ramotar would have done until his five-year tenure was up in 2016.
He will lose in the May election and become a footnote in history. Just compare PNC Presidents and PPP Presidents. Forbes Burnham has his place in history and his name lives on. The only other PNC President was Desmond Hoyte. He was a Guyanese hero. There have been four PPP Presidents (minus the short caretaker stance of Sam Hinds). Janet Jagan has not achieved anything.
Bharrat Jagdeo is reviled even in the rural constituencies of the PPP. Ramotar has gone down as a big failure. Of the four, only Cheddi Jagan has left his mark. What was numbing about the Ramotar Presidency is that the man cannot point to one sound, admirable achievement; not one.
I am sure the opposition leaders are going to run out of their homes shouting for joy when they hear that Ramotar secured the PPP’s nomination. He has lost before the election begins. The difficulty the PPP has is that it hasn’t got personnel in its PR department who can sell Ramotar. Ramotar is not saleable.
But is the PPP itself saleable? After twenty-three years with a record that even the greatest genius in the world cannot defend, the PPP is facing its twilight. The PPP has never won an election using ideas to beat their opponents. Since 1957, victory was inevitable because of Pavlovian voting.
In a country where Indians outnumbered Africans and Coloureds, the PPP’s victory was always assured.
Then came changing demographics. By 2011, the PPP didn’t have the numbers. The election campaign needed ideas, not ethnic support. The PPP lost the majority and only survived because 130,000 registered persons didn’t cast a ballot. Also the AFC neglected Region 3. Come May 2015, the PPP can only win through the skillful use of intellectual ideas. The Indian numbers in the Guyana population that made victory automatic are gone. The intellectual ideas are not there. The people to possess ideas are not there.
A cursory glance of the PPP today will give an indication of the May 2015 election results. He may be in love with himself and that is his narcissistic right, but Clement Rohee does not appeal to any Indian constituency and he has to appeal to them if he is the presidential candidate because that is where the PPP votes are going to come from.
Mr. Rohee’s logic is understandable; the only problem is that such logic belongs to a bygone era.
Mr. Rohee’s logic is that it does not matter whom the PPP puts; Indians vote for the party and not the man and Berbicians have awakened from their 2011 sleep. They didn’t vote in 2011 because they thought the PPP had already won. But this time they will. The opposition should be glad that Rohee thinks like that. Rohee is more unelectable than CN Sharma and that is no exaggeration.
Can the PPP bank on Roger Luncheon and Gail Teixeira in its campaign? Which section of Berbice and Essequibo do these two PPP autocrats appeal to? Can they defeat a rampant Moses Nagamootoo? I don’t think so. Lacking ideas and personnel, the PPP will hope to win the 2015 election through the use of the two Ms – money and media. It will pour money into Indian and Amerindian villages. It has already started.
These two strategies did not work in 2011. The media blitz was a failure. At the time of writing, NTN Channel 69 is preparing to launch its Berbice opening. The Amerindian vote declined in 2011. It will further erode in March 2015. No amount of media frenzy and money will help the PPP because the PPP does not know how to behave.
It is as simple as that.
A supporter from the AFC said to me last Saturday at the AFC rally in Skeldon, that I must not write about the weaknesses of the PPP because they will read it and try to learn from what I write and try to “pull up their socks” (her words).
I told her this will not happen because people with naked power cannot see that far, do not want to see that far and cannot and will not learn from the mistakes of the past. Naked power destroys the faculty to reason and think.

Latest News

The PPP has never won an election using ideas

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Ramdheol fifty leads pilots Guyana to 6-wicket win

Berbice thrash Demerara by 82-runs after Fraser...

Guyana Rainforest Rangers to bowl encampment...

A tribute to Milton Robert Pydana aka ‘Golden...

GCB expresses condolence on the passing of former...

Covent Garden Secondary boys on course for Region...

Features/Columnists

In praise of the Almighty Executive Order

Collaborative Government–Private Sector Action Imperative for a Resilient Trade Future

World coming to an end

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The PPP has never won an election using ideas

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 14th, 2025

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 […]