The PNC has to teach its leaders about life’s subtle complexities

Oct 31, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Here is what one of the prominent young leaders of the PNC wrote. This person has both a PR job for the PNC and the Government. These words you are about to read can only damage the image of any ruling party. After the long decades of authoritarian direction of the PNC when it was in power, Mr. Granger as leader of the PNC and as an intellectual who was schooled in the social sciences at the university level, better have a word with this young lady.
Here are the words of Malika Ramsey; “As a youth member of the PNCR, I see absolutely nothing wrong with those ministers meeting with members of the public at Congress Place Sophia. The fact is that those Government Ministers are also Members of Parliament and members of the People’s National Congress Reform – the party which is the largest in the APNU + AFC Coalition Government. Those Members of Parliament have constituents and constituencies that would have chosen them to represent their interests at the highest levels of office. I would have seen an issue had it been that those proposed meetings at Congress Place were the only public appearances made by the government ministers who again I stress, are also MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.”
It is obvious because of age, Ms. Ramsay is inexperienced in the complexities of life. We should not hold this faux pas against her, but if she has a future in politics, then, such uniformed, unenlightened opinions need to be removed from her book of conceptualizations. Ms. Ramsay ought to be taught that the human being is a complex soul. A teacher belongs to a genetic type of ethnicity. A teacher also belongs to a religious denomination. A teacher also possesses a nationality. But when the teacher is in front of a class in a school, instructing students, that teacher is a teacher and not a Chinese or African or Christian or Muslim.
This is how nuanced life is. One may say that is a simple concept to understand. But from the quote above taken from Ramsey’s book on conceptualizations, she is not familiar with the nuances of the human personality. Ramsay’s words that government ministers are also members of parliament and also members of a political party blur some very sophisticated subtle differences in the functions a leader performs in society. To make it simpler; a journalist also belongs to a lodge, an NGO, a tennis club. But when his/her colleagues in those formations commit egregious crimes, his/her obligation is to the sacred principles of journalism.
A Minister of Government lives a separate life from the party activist that he/she is. The electorate does not vote for ministers; they vote for members of parliament. A minister is an administrator of the affairs of the nation, not the business of his/her party. The nation consists of the young, the not so old, the aged, the Muslim, the Hindu, the homosexual, the biologist, the lawyer, the housewife, the judge, the cart-man, the PPP member, the PNC member, the animal lover (like me).
The minister takes a national oath, backed by the constitution to serve this diverse group of people. This diverse group has an expectation of the minister – he/she will tend to the pleas and interests of the citizens that make up what the ancient Greeks called the DEMOS, meaning the community. The minister then has to satisfy the expectations, as humanly possible, of members of the DEMOS. That is the function of the minister – to tend to the subjects of the DEMOS.
It is logical then for the Minister to know that he has to appear as a national administrator, not a partisan benefactor. When the minister does this, the minister executes his/her patriotic duty to the citizenry. Ms. Ramsey ought to know that a PPP member may have a problem with thieves that are rampaging in her community and she wants to go to her minister at his public office to talk to him, not his party office, because her imploration is unrelated to party matters.
Ms. Ramsay, after reading this, will be tempted (I guess most people will) by saying this is just technical deception – A minister belongs to a political party and that is a graphic fact. The fact is it appears like that and it does influence the way people think. It has influenced Ramsay’s thought. But this technical deception serves a very priceless function in preserving the legal and moral fabric of a society. Let’s hope Ramsay will be the last PNC leader to erase this vital distinction in the function of leaders.

3 thoughts on “The PNC has to teach its leaders about life’s subtle complexities”

bl_666 October 31, 2016 at 3:11 pm

I am open to correction but I find this part of her statement more problematic-
” Those Members of Parliament have constituents and constituencies that would have chosen them to represent their interests at the highest levels of office.”
Do Guyana MPs represent discrete constituencies?
Keith Williams October 31, 2016 at 6:58 pm

Freddie you have gone off the rail on this one. The argument that a Minister lives a separate life from his political self is absolutely nuts. The very notion that victory in an election triggers some line of bifurcation that cleaves the brains of a politician into separate and distinct parts with no over-laps, is absolutely ridiculous. But that summarizes the genus in Freddie’s thesis.

The basic argument that the location for such a meeting with such type of persons lend to some conflict of interest, or partisan political gambit, is ridiculous. The audience are MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. That means that this is open to the entire population. There is no exclusion. So then one has to construe that it is the location that rattles the thunder of Freddie and others. What? What are they expecting to gain. Ministers are Ministers because they belong to a particular party. So they will not shed that identity at any time during their tenure. The PNC gains nothing, Except if one thinks that the publicity would be the benefit. And in that case, what the hell. Better that than taking land to build themselves mansions, or using the treasury to pay for cosmetic dentistry.
Surujpaul Rampersaud October 31, 2016 at 9:12 pm

Most supporters of the PNC have never given up on the idea of Party Paramountcy.