The supporters of the PPP have every reason to exhale

Jun 17, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor
It is with sadness that I write this letter, a sadness that has arisen because of the deep divisions in our society; a division that is unwarranted and unnecessary; a dangerous division that can have terrible consequences; a taught division; a manipulated division; a division that allows an Indian child of seven to be told she has no President. Such is the sadness that accompanies this letter.
In today’s world, many chosen or elected leaders seem to have a strong desire to want to be served instead of serving others.  They want to rule instead of govern. They behave as bosses instead of leaders. Serving others is the essence of servant leadership.  Leadership is a journey; a journey of service.
Yet today we see a political party that has lost contact with its purpose. It has become soulless and rudderless. It is behaving like a typewriter in an age of supercomputers. What we see emerging in the PPP/C is the tragedy of low Emotional IQ leadership. Leadership devoid of vision and devoid of mission and cohesiveness.
We see threats that the economy will slow because Indians control the economy, “their Indians”, not Guyanese Indians.
This intellectual barrenness is symptomatic of a collective group think that is both self-poisonous and counter-strategic. It is clear that the PPP and its former Ministers are suffering from a “severe crisis of leadership, common sense and conscience”.
The elections are over. Hundreds of domestic and international observers have proclaimed the elections to be “free and fair”. They were kind to the PPP/C in not saying the PPP/C created an environment that made the election period not “free of fear”.
The unabridged racist campaign strategy of the PPP/C not only exposed its underbelly but disqualified it to lead a modern Guyana as it showed the PPP does not have the “morality to lead a multi-ethnic society”. The racist campaign also revealed that at its core, the PPP has no commitment to a Guyana of “One People”, One Nation, One Destiny”.
If the PPPC were to face the mirror and were to ask “mirror, mirror on the wall”, the mirror would shamefully break into a thousand pieces of selfishness, distortion of the truth and unrepentant racism”. There are a thousand ways to be corrupt. The PPP wants to show us all thousand.
Guyana needed new leadership and the People have so provided through the last elections. The recent findings of the pension plan at Guysuco, its G$90 Billion debt; the empty pot of rice in the Petro Caribe deal; the hidden funds in bank accounts; the gross criminality of seeking election campaign funds disguised as a loan from the GGMC to the housing sector….all explain the “stiffening of necks and the red neck character” of a morally spent and intellectually barren political force.
For the PPP, it is time for renewal and rebirth. Your election campaign has left you still born. The entire world watched in amazement at the most blatant racism election campaign the Region and perhaps the entire World (outside Apartheid South Africa) has seen in the last 50 years. Should we have been surprised? No.
Kean Gibson had it right when she wrote “racism itself a political system, a particular power structure of formal and informal rule, socioeconomic privilege, and norms for the differential distribution of material wealth and opportunities, benefits and burdens, rights and duties”.
For the PPP, racism underpins its political and economic philosophy. Not democracy. Not socialism.
The unconscionable PPP has left Guyana deeply wounded, so wounded, that even if the PPP had managed to win, it would not have been allowed to rule. The racism was too real, too close to the bone. Too unapologetic. Too raw. Too rank. Too criminal. Too irreconcilable to People of decency.
The current behaviour of the PPP is symptomatic of political crassness. It has forced its constituency to bear the brunt of its nastiness.
I won’t be surprised if the depression rate and ultimately the suicide rate of their constituency goes up. This is criminal. This is the antithesis of leadership. Daily I see and feel the sadness of some of their supporters, some whom are close friends, are under enormous stress because they cannot be themselves. They feel under siege, not because they are under siege by known enemies or the government but because the PPP has their own supporters under siege.
Why? How can you be so cruel to your own family? Isn’t blood thicker than water? The PPP has lost but wouldn’t concede. They have reverted to their core belief system…..racial superiority. Racism. How dare the Gods allow a lesser people to rule them?  Impossible!
The PPP has now become “prisoners of its past” and is paralysed into destructive personal and party politics. But this now puts a greater requirement of Statesmanship and patience on President Granger, PM Nagamootoo and all other appointed members of Government.
Ministers need to set the example. They need to first recognise the stress lines around us, in our workplaces, on the buses and in the society in general.
Let’s stop the daily bombardment of who will be “this” and “who will be that”. Let the legal process have its due course. All Guyanese will welcome the prosecution of criminality whether it be naked corruption or sophisticated stealing, whether it be for extrajudicial killings or other white / blue collar criminality.
It is time for Grace on behalf of the Government. We all need grace after the psychological prison we lived in for so many years.
The President, Prime Minister, the Minister of Social Cohesion and the Ministry of Education need to establish a Task Force for this national priority. I am certain they are aware of the situation. For Guyanese of Indian Descent, it is time to exhale. Do not be held hostage to dark forces disguised as “sore losers”. They are not representing your best interest. They are representing their own interest and you are their collateral damage.
Leadership is about vision. Leadership is about maturity and of accepting basic truths.
Eric Phillips

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