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The man in that photo tells the story of unchanging politics

Dec 07, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My opinion is that Jagdeo will lose the constitutional case of the two-term presidential limit which is now in front of the Court Of Appeal. But Jagdeo is in 2020 campaign mood. I don’t think he is looking at the court case in itself. He is acting out of the recognition that the appeal will not be heard before the election campaign.
Jagdeo is not deterred by the rejection he received when he went to Stabroek Market Square to sympathize with the evicted vendors. At that time in his entourage was Jason Abdulla. Mr. Abdulla is certainly not a figure that earned a good reputation when Jagdeo was president. He is currently charged along with Kwame McCoy and Shawn Hinds, with assaulting me. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that huge political players far above the subordinate status of these three men were the planners of that violent act. Mr. Abdulla belongs to a circle, two of whose members were questioned in the police investigation into the assassination of Courtney Crum-Ewing.
Against this background, it would be politically correct and morally obligatory for Jagdeo to shun these figures from his public political perambulations. On the contrary, Abdulla is always with Jagdeo on the walkabouts and McCoy works at the PPP’s radio station.
Last week, Jagdeo was in the downtown area to canvas people’s attitude toward the 2017 budget. And guess who was seen in the photo? None other than Mr. Abdulla. The nature of Jagdeo and the aging faces in the PPP’s leadership are not going to respect public opinion. The PPP never did and it never will.
Mr. Jagdeo is not going to sideline Abdulla or any other PPP apparatchik that has acquired an infamous reputation. This is not the nature of the man and his party. It brings into intriguing focus the question; how sincere is the PPP’s strategy of seeking the thoughts of stakeholders on a new GECOM chairman. Let’s analyze this new direction of the PPP to see if it is a high class con game. But first the need to consult was never a method in Jagdeo’s arsenal. In his 12 years of hegemony, who or what did Jagdeo consult in the planning and execution of policies?
I was on the Council of the University when we heard that the university had a new Vice-Chancellor. Not even the board knew; under the UG Act, it is the Council that appoints the Vice- Chancellor. When the American Government advised that it was a dangerous misstep to appoint Henry Green as Commissioner of Police, who were the stakeholders that were contacted before Green was confirmed in his post by President Jagdeo?
This same Jagdeo as President overlooked the line of seniority in the army and bypassed the next four officers at the apex and appointed Gary Best as head of the GDF. Did he consult with stakeholders when he did that? We come now to the new mood of democratic thinking discovered by Jagdeo. Of all places he went to ask for an opinion, it was the Trade Union Congress.
On Saturday night at Beterverwagting (commonly referred to as BV), I pulled over to observe traffic cops as they randomly stopped drivers, including a pregnant woman. Up came Lincoln Lewis. He pulled over, came to me to ascertain if I was alright. I needed to engage Lincoln on the téte –â- téte with Jagdeo with regards to the consultation for a new GECOM Chairman. Lincoln said he was in a rush to get to town so he couldn’t chat.
Did Jagdeo as President seek the advice of other trade unions when he withdrew the monthly stipend from Critchlow Labour College? The newborn Jagdeo has changed or has he? If Jagdeo has undergone what Forbes Burnham liked to refer to as an attitudinal metamorphosis then why is he walking around with Jason Abdulla? Isn’t it a moral convention for high-ranking politicians to avoid the limelight with party officials who are before the courts charged with criminal offence?
Maybe it is, but not for the leadership of the PPP. This columnist believes from the deep recesses of his mind that if the PPP gets back in power Jagdeo and the troglodytes will be more bestial, vicious and totalitarian. Jagdeo and the PPP have already identified the person they want to be the GECOM chairman. The consultations with stakeholders are what the Trinidadian playwright, Freddie Kissoon, called mamaguay.

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