TIME FOR RALPH TO RETURN HOME

Jun 16, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The People’s Progressive Party is not in a crisis. What is in a crisis is a small grouping called in the Executive Committee of the Party which is the epicenter of decision making and authority within the party.
The Executive Committee of the Party is in turmoil because it is led by a cabal which is not keen on taking responsibility for the party’s loss of the elections last month.
The cabal which had promoted the interest of a powerful economic oligarchy is now likely to suffer financial ruin as a result of the loss of State patronage. This has created a crisis within the cabal, and through the cabal a crisis within the Executive Committee of the Party.
The PPP is complaining that it was robbed in the elections. It is yet to produce the evidence to substantiate this claim. Perhaps it is waiting on GECOM to publish the official breakdown of the election results before it does this.
GECOM has a responsibility to publish the full results. Following the 2011 elections, APNU took to protests outside of the homes of top GECOM officials. The protestors sang hymns outside of the homes of these officials. Their demand was simple: they wanted soft and hard copies of the election results by polling stations since at the time APNU was, like the PPP is now doing, claiming that it was cheated.  GECOM provided the breakdown of the results and nothing more was heard from APNU about cheating. GECOM has a moral obligation to be fair to the PPP. It should do what it did back in 2011 and provide to the PPP a breakdown of the results of the 2015 elections. Once it does this, the PPP will have to produce evidence to counter the official breakdown of the results. Or it will have to shut up and end its protests.
GECOM has for sometime now made public the results of the 2011 elections by polling station. It should do the same for the 2015 elections and end the controversy over the elections.
This may of course then trigger a crisis within the PPP because it is hard to see how after having lost a majority in the 2011 elections and then having lost the 2015 elections, the leadership of the PPP still intends to remain in power. Already there have been calls for the party to move forward without certain persons. This is sound advice but not the sort of advice that those within the cabal in the Executive Committee would want to receive. They are holding on for dear life hoping that their claims of being “cheated but not defeated” will allow them to remain relevant.
The same thing happened within the PNC after 1997. Desmond Hoyte did not wish to step down and so he perpetuated the myth that the PPPC along with GECOM had rigged the elections. The PNCR caused a great deal of pain to this country for a number of years by concocting a non-existent political crisis just so that its leadership could remain at the helm of the party.
The PPP is in the mode of political survival. If the PPP concedes that it lost the elections, their supporters will demand that the leadership, and particularly those that the membership is blaming for the loss of the elections, step down. There is therefore no crisis within the PPP. There is a crisis within the Executive Committee.
It is now time for the Central Executive to step forward and demand a forward- looking approach for the party. The Central Executive is a much broader body than the Executive Committee even though the latter is drawn from the former. The C.E. should summon a special meeting and demand that the party be reorganized for the future.
The PPP narrowly lost the elections. It should not beat up itself about that loss. It strategy of instilling fear in the hearts of its supporters over a possible APNU+AFC government may not have brought it victory but it did not fail. The PPP did better in 2015 than it did in 2011 even though it ended up with the same number of seats and relatively speaking barely lost the elections.
But because the PPP lost, the same strategy will not work in the future. Unless the PPP changes course, its supporters will abandon it. This is evident from the post election comments of its supporters who blame certain leaders for the loss of the elections. That is the reality. The supporters of the PPP want to see the backs of certain PPP leaders. They do not want to see them back again in the leadership of the PPP. In fact these supporters are saying unless these leaders are removed they will not vote for the PPP.
These leaders should be given marching orders. But this can only take place if some strong individuals demand this from within the Central Executive. The party needs new leadership and the only way this can happen is if a unifying figure is invited to lead the party in this the post 2015 elections.
That person could be Ralph Ramkarran. Perhaps it is his time for him to return home to the PPP.

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