You hear the same refrain all the time

Oct 06, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I was at the wake for the two brothers-in-law of Imran Khan of the PM’s office. They died in a tragic road accident at Friendship, EBD. The conversation among most attendees, were on the performance of the ruling Coalition.
I sat next to attorney, Gino Persaud, and we carried on our little dialogue oblivious of the big debates that were going on around us. The recurring point in the discussions I have with people in situations like these – wakes, wedding receptions, and funeral services – is that the performance of the Coalition is giving space to the PPP.
Both Gino and I agreed that as the Coalition continues to make mistakes, the PPP’s staying power is being fertilised. Educated people that I speak to are simply mystified that a political party could have ruled so badly for 15 years (the Jagdeo/Ramotar period) yet takes the moral high ground. Such a huge political aberration puts Guyana in a special category.
You pick up the newspapers and on a daily basis there are the utterances of Bharrat Jagdeo, Anil Nandlall, Donald Ramotar, Hydar Ally, and Clement Rohee. These people make accusations of wrong-doings against the Government the nature of which is a comparison between milk and poison when they ruled this land. And there is never a moment of pause to say that they have been that way, and looking back they regretted that direction.
Anil Nandlall leads the pack of anti-government critics who write almost daily in the letter pages of the newspapers. This is the lead lawyer for Bharrat Jagdeo in the libel case. Jagdeo sued for the mere statement that he is an ideological racist. This same Jagdeo has accused the Government of racism and have uttered remarks on racism that are far more venomous that a mere statement of him being an ideological racist.
No one has sued Jagdeo. Nandlall and Jagdeo continue the libel suit and would be quite happy to continue their use of racist descriptions against the government without even a blink of shame.
This is what is taking place in Guyana, today, and the PPP leadership is given space to continue their political circus because they are thriving on the unnecessary mistakes of the Coalition. The PPP doesn’t need to invent tall tales about the Coalition. The Coalition itself invents them and the PPP picks up from there.
It was the same Nandlall who enumerated a shocking number of increases in many services and documents that a citizen has to get from the State. A paper that cost you $500 is now $5000. A document that cost you $1000 is now $10,000.
Some of these increases are so unreasonable that if a PPP leader goes to one of its rural constituencies and describe them, the attendees would garland the speaker.
In separate columns I would look at the Marriott Hotel and the TOPCO juice fiascoes. And fiasco is surely a mild word. What is enigmatic is that there isn’t a series of enlightened policies that the Coalition could use to mask their daily mistakes so the PPP would be hard-pressed to succeed with its propaganda.
In other words, you do something exciting, and the nation is glad and that excitement masks an unpopular policy so people are not conscious of it. This of course is practical politics. This is the way politics is practised. It may not be morally elevating but the leadership of every country is faced with these dilemmas.
Unfortunately, in Guyana, the Coalition does not know how to practise that kind of politics. So it increases the fee by leaps and bounds for a particular type of public service, but simultaneously it doesn’t offer any goodies. So it stands exposed and the PPP makes huge political capital out of such poor politics. This is happening every day with the Government. Why in just one year of power, you have increased the fees for public documents and services by over a thousand percent and there is no corresponding increase in wages and salaries?
You are simply and foolishly giving your opposition ammunition to use against you.
Given the enormity of the destruction of the PPP when it was in power, one would have thought that the PPP would have been desperately fighting to survive. But the PPP is alive and kicking. And its constituencies are not shunning it. It scares you to think of the reaction of sugar workers when Jagdeo, Nandlall and company go to them and tell them that the Coalition cannot send money on Wales Estate but it can do so on the Marriott Hotel.

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