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The PPP has to undergo fundamental changes
Dear Editor,
The PPP leadership has not shown a willingness to reform and its tunnel vision position is the primary reason why it was toppled from office in 1953, 1964, and again in 2011 and 2015. Critical scrutiny of the party and its leadership as suggested by Harry Hergash and others will serve the party well.
The PPP remained dogmatic and doctrinaire to an alien ideology for which it and the population at large suffered enormously. Several prominent individuals (not the least being Moses Nagamootoo, Ralph Ramkarran, Navin Chanderpal, etc.) from within the party, especially post-Jagan, tried to reform the party and guide it in a direction to reduce electoral losses, but the party would have none of it. Others advised via the media that the party democratized internally and embrace outside forces. But the party resisted those recommendations. It felt it can use ethnic electoral arithmetic to forever win elections. Clearly, the 2011 and 2015 elections revealed otherwise. The leadership was characterized by hubris, hauteur, arrogance, pompous behavior, alienation of and contempt for the masses. People experienced it all in efforts to meet them. When requested for a meeting to discuss issues that would help them and they party, they said they were busy. But they found plenty time to socialize with their intimate friends over the bottle. The neglect of their base was not a priority.
As Harry Hergash pointed out, the PPP refused to make concessions to the opposition and accommodating it with some kind of power sharing formula when it was a minority in parliament. In addition, instead of seeking reconciliation with Moses Nagamootoo who broke with the party over internal democracy, the party attacked him. Moses wanted the party’s support to be Speaker. But the party was non-supportive and a known opponent of the PPP was made Speaker. Then the party made yet another blunder by excommunicating Ralph Ramkarran. It signaled the end of the party’s electability.
This is 2015, not 1975. The party has not made significant effort to rebrand and change its leadership. The party has remained with some discredited ‘old’ blood (who were responsible for the defeats of 2011 and 2015) who are not attractive to voters to win an election. Every time some of them open their mouth, the party loses votes; they don’t get the message. The party must face the hard reality — the present crop of old timers can never have a wide appeal; some of them are not even acceptable to the base. And as such, the party has to craft a new image with intellectuals.
The PPP exhibits little concern about being the government in waiting and seems quite content to languish in opposition ad infinitum. And that it will remain unless it reforms. The internal structure of the party has to be democratized. It has to open up to others (bring in new blood) and don’t view every critic as an enemy. Also, the party has to widen its appeal beyond its traditional support base and Amerindians. It is delusion in grandeur to think it can win another election without reform and multi-racial support.
From captain to cook there is taint from all angles; the party’s image has to be sanitized. Some are enjoying patronage at the expense of the more deserving, which in effect diminishes the party’s and the leadership’s political stock in the eyes of an enlightened electorate. The party has to choose leadership based on merit and not on loyalty. It must have people who can add value to the party not take away support. It needs to be associated with thinkers and intellectuals, not yes men and women.
Had the PPP heeded the advice of critics and well-wishers, it would not have been removed from office and the country would not have had to pay the price it is paying for errors of the current administration. It is not too late to reform. Beyond primordial instinct, the party has little appeal for an increasingly sophisticated electorate and the party is destined to remain in opposition for a long, long time unless it heeds advice from well-intentioned critics. I empathize with PPP supporters who will continue to revel in the illusion of a PPP government in waiting.
Vishnu Bisram
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