The PPP is wringing the changes

Jul 12, 2015 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Every time a political party loses an election and is out of office many things happen, especially if that party had become a fixture. I remember 1992 when the People’s National Congress was voted out of office. That party had been there for 28 years and many of its leaders had come to the conclusion that they would be there forever.
I watched as many of them left to pursue activities to put food on their tables, because none of them was rich. For all the talk of theft and corruption, these were ordinary people who did not have elaborate homes and exorbitant lifestyles.
Take a walk around and one would see how former PNC ministers live. I saw Jeffrey Thomas on Friday outside the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company office which some call the Blackberry office. He was unassuming. In fact, I wonder whether anyone who met him would remember that he was at one time the Home Affairs Minister.
He lives in a small house at Bachelor’s Adventure and drives a car that many young people would not be caught dead in. He is not alone. I can name many others and nobody can ever hope to find one of them living in anything as ostentatious as the homes of some junior ministers in the recent administration.
However, I saw the PNC disintegrate; people left to seek their fortunes and except for a few diehards, Congress Place had many empty rooms.
The PPP has been voted out and at present Freedom House is busy, because those who no longer have Government offices to which they can repair need the comfort of their colleagues who now find themselves in a similar position. But this will not be for long.
Many were awaiting the release of the names of people who would be sitting in Parliament. Now that the list has been revealed, people would drift away to continue their lives still hoping that by some miracle what happened on May 11, 2015 would be reversed.
At the same time they have to deal with the accusations of mismanagement and fraudulent practices. And there have been many of these. The Auditor General who submitted his report to Parliament during the tenure of the previous administration did make some damning findings.
Indeed, some of these revelations are not new, but the government of the day chose to gloss over them with the result that the wider society concluded that they were nothing to shout about or that they had better not say too much for fear of victimization.
Yet there is one thing that would always keep the politics alive and this has to do with the presence of popular people. Bharrat Jagdeo has always been a charismatic character and one who always seemed to attract controversy.  He has been accused of all manner of things, from racism to cronyism.
He sat with the press to report that he had had enough of local political life, that he had no interest in political office. He did say that there were those in the opposition who were afraid of his reappearance on the political scene.
Well Jagdeo somersaulted and now he is back in political life, a mere six weeks after his announcement. I will not pretend to know why, except to say that Clement Rohee has been hero worshipping him. Rohee is the General Secretary of the party, the de facto leader in the structure that Dr Cheddi Jagan created in the mould of the Soviet communist party.
As the Opposition Leader, Jagdeo will ensure that the National Assembly is a lively place. For one, he is going to confront all those who have been accusing him of all manner of things. And knowing the person he is, equally aggressive, he will respond as only he could.
Depending on how he behaves and how much publicity he gets in the House, one could see a rebirth of his political career that he himself scuttled. But I doubt it. He has to answer for too many things.
Yet one must ask why the obsession with Jagdeo. Perhaps he is the most financially secure of the politicians with perhaps the exception of Irfaan Ali and Anil Nandlall. Nandlall made his money as a lawyer but Irfaan seems to have fallen into the ranks of those Government ministers who made hay while the sun shone.
I would like to see Jagdeo ensconced in the Office of the Opposition Leader, the place that David Granger occupied and only because he made so much noise that the then government simply could not ignore him. And knowing his obsession with things fancy, I would enjoy hearing the requests that would be made by Jagdeo.
However, I doubt that Jagdeo would go to Hadfield Street. He has this place in New Garden Street that is supposed to be home to the foundation he said he set up. And so we come to the decision handed down by Chief Justice Ian Chang. It is already being criticized by a retired Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The Constitution stipulates that no person could stand for reelection more than once. Chang contends that the change in the constitution was unlawful. I am no lawyer, but I respect the constitution. At one time I respected Jagdeo’s words. He kept saying that he had no interest in a third term. I now know otherwise, but like so many around I want to believe that he would have a very long time.
Further, I am convinced that Chang’s decision would be overturned, so that third term thing could be a non-issue.

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