Donald Trump does better than Rohee

Jan 14, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

We may not like Donald Trump but as a politician, Trump is way ahead of Clement Rohee in the adumbration of his beliefs and the willingness to defend those beliefs. I saw Rohee do an act a few days ago that was sheer political ignorance, sheer political incompetence, sheer political stupidity.
Most unfortunately, the media allowed him to get away with it. I would suggest every editor review the tape and instruct reporters on a fixed response
I almost didn’t catch it but I know the nonsense that characterizes the political life of Rohee. It was a repeat of one of the television newscasts from the previous night. My wife was watching it in the living room and she had the newspapers with her. I went to have the newspaper and there was Rohee at his press conference talking about the Simona Broomes ministerial transfer. And I glanced at the TV set. Trust me, I would look and listen attentively to any press conference by any PPP personality except two – Charles Ramson Senior and Clement Rohee.
Jagdeo, Lucheon, Teixeira, Ramotar all come across more credibly than Rohee. They would be lying; they would be barefaced; they would irritate you but the shape of their delivery is presentable. Not Rohee.
After describing how he felt about the Broomes transfer, he posited a conspiracy in the Government. One of the reporters then asked him to expand. As he did millions of times before, he directed the reporter to the Government. This is crass and immense ignorance that embarrasses this country, because the folly is coming out of the mouth of the leader of the opposition party that has almost half the seats in Parliament.
If you say that I left the country illegally through one of the smaller airports and the reporter asked you to elaborate, how can you point the journalist to speak with me when it is not me that is saying I committed an offence but you. The onus is on you to expand, not me.
Most horrifyingly, Rohee has got away with this identical posture countless times, and not one of the journalists would follow up and tell him, “but Mr. Rohee why should we ask the Government when it is you who are making the accusation and it is you that should provide details.”
This is where Donald Trump, as funny, comical and buffoonish as we find him would not do that silly act that Rohee loves. If Trump says that Hilary Clinton’s campaign is in conspiracy with the Obama administration and you ask him to give details, he may mislead you; he may lie but he will not tell to go and ask Clinton. I don’t think Trump will be as foolish as Rohee
When the PPP leadership looks at Rohee, does it think that in 2020 it could showcase such a blistering, blundering, bloody incompetent to its supporters in the election campaign? Does it think Guyanese deserve such intellectual dwarfism from the PPP? How does Jagdeo feel about Rohee’s public relations? It was Jagdeo who told a meeting in an East Coast Demerara village that the PPP lost the 2015 elections because (a) leaders lost touch with the PPP constituencies and (b) arrogance took hold of the party’s supporters. But what about competence? Could the AFC, PNC, WPA, PPP and other organization win a general election using strategies based on those they invented in the fifties to the eighties?
The answer is a pyrotechnical no. Forty years ago, race was the crucial factor in winning. That is not guaranteed today. Secondly, today‘s generation is deeply conscious of what qualities leaders must possess. They look at deportment, intellect, rhetoric even paying attention to what you wear.
Thirdly, the internet connects the world in a tight labyrinth. There is no country on the globe anymore but a global village. When a rumour about Jagdeo first surfaced soon after he became president, Guyanese all over the world, as far as far-flung countries began to e-mail friends and relatives to ask if there was any truth to the rumour.
My relatives would pester me to find out if it was true or false. This is what politics does to a country in the age of social media
How would young voters view Rohee when they watch him on television and they see the display of a politician that is hopelessly irrelevant in modern times? Of course the APNU-AFC bandwagon would hope Rohee continues in that mode. But they too should be careful about the Rohees in their own camp. I heard Hamilton Green will be a candidate in local government elections.

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