Our leaders since the 1920s do not know what poverty is

Oct 29, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Go back to 1926 with the birth of the Popular Party, right through to the formation of the Political Affairs Committee which became the PPP, then to the PNC through to the United Force, and take it right up to the Alliance for Change, those countless politicians who became governmental leaders never knew what poverty was like. They never endured poverty. They never tasted the agony and angst of poverty.
Dr. Jagan was a country boy from Port Mourant, but he was not from an impoverished home. He and his siblings did well in life. Jagan’s de facto deputy in the olden days was Ranji Chandisingh, a graduate from Harvard. Boysie Ramkarran later became next in line after Jagan, but his parents had land. When Jagan came to power as Premier in 1957 until he lost power in 1964, all his ministers were middle class politicians, some of them being very privileged people in Guyana at the time. Burnham came from a middle class household; his dad was a headmaster. Hammie Green told me in a recent interview that his father was middle class in those days. Ptolemy Reid hailed from Dartmouth, where at an early age, he copped a scholarship to become a doctor in veterinary medicine.
There were some small parties that got into government whose leaders were privileged people in British Guiana. We can start with the National Democratic Party of elitist lawyer John Carter who joined Burnham’s government. Llewellyn John also joined Burnham’s party from the League of Coloured People. John came from a background of extensive landholding. There is no need to mention the United Force of Peter D’Aguiar. His party was at the time and remains today, the most middle organization to enter politics; the Popular Party in the 1920s did not have so many wealthy people in its ranks as the United Force
When the PPP returned to power in 1992 it formed a coalition with a group called the Civic Component. Without exception, the people who joined the Jagan Government from the Civic Component were all middle class names, some of whom included – Dr. Henry Jeffrey, Samuel Hinds, an engineer, Dr. Hughley Hanoman. Both Clement Rohee and I are getting on in age, but I hope his memory is still good as I remind him when we met at the Pegasus car park, He had a few inelegant remarks to make on the middle class composition of the Civic Component. Later on in power, the PPP offered a ministerial post to the leader, Manzoor Nadir, of a small party named TUF. Nadir at the time was not someone the PPP plucked from poverty. He lived in Lamaha Gardens.
We have come to the point of the AFC and the WPA in office. Dr. Roopnaraine represents the WPA in the present government. Kitty-born, QC boy, he secured a scholarship to Cambridge and a doctorate from Cornell University. That is hardly an indication of poverty. The AFC is literally the reincarnation of the United Force of Peter D’Aguiar. Whereas the PPP and PNC leaders would be unashamed to speak of their outfits as working class organizations, the AFC would consider it an immersion in leprosy to mention the word working class to describe their politics.
Finally, it would really be silly for anyone to mention that David Granger came from a poor, working class background where he understood the throes of poverty. Mr. Granger is the most middle class-oriented leader the PNC ever produced. Now read this; Hamilton Green told me that it was ironic that Desmond Hoyte should have worn a middle class aura during his leadership of the government, because Hoyte came from a very humble background, more than any other PNC leader.
These are the locals who have had political power in Guyana since the Popular Party in 1926 won seats in the legislature. And from 1926 to this day, not one of these politicians could say they were born into and grew up in poverty. These people from 1926 onwards never understood what a life of poverty was/is. They cannot empathize with poor people, so they feel no remorse when they chase them off the streets selling their little items, break up their vending stalls and demolish their squatter-dwellings.
A human has to be an animal to grow up in poverty, liberate themselves from the chains of desperation, become somebody in life, and refuse to show empathy and sympathy for poor people. I know what it is like to have one meal a day growing up in South Georgetown. If you think that is an exaggeration, then you are a fool who knows nothing about life.

1 thoughts on “Our leaders since the 1920s do not know what poverty is”

RLSG October 30, 2017 at 10:38 am

The word ‘class’ has lost its meaning within the political lexicon. When one looks at the likes of Jagdeo and those of his ilk one cannot be surprised at their behavior which can be deemed low class. You do not just ‘cuss out’ people because you have disagreements with them. Any keen observer of Guyanese politicians and acceptable social behavior within the population can make a judgement fairly’ or ‘unfairly’ on class differences. But then again one will be accused of being unfairly judgemental or stereotyping. As the rumor/joke goes, many in the PPP had to be ‘taught’ proper etiquette vis-a-vis the use of a knife and fork when they came into power in 1992 … a task with which they were NOT totally familiar in their homes.