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The Leviathan decides who will be the next leader

Apr 14, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The ban on wheaten flour was eroding the power-base of the PNC as a party under Burnham. The flour ban had hit harder than the embargo on channa, split peas, etc. Flour was used by the entire nation, but it was hitting African Guyanese harder than Indians for a simple demographic reason. Rural Indians were using the proximity of the Corentyne villages to Suriname to bring in the stuff. Indians then had more access to bread and roti than urban-based Africans.
Africans got the banned stuff from the four urban municipal markets, which were easier to police than Indian villages that received the stuff from Suriname in the uncivilized hours of the morning. One day remains memorable in the era of banned flour. A Sunday morning at Bourda Green, a group of high government officials, including someone extremely close to one of Burnham’s daughters, descended upon the bread vendors there and destroyed their loaves.
Elvin Mc David, who I think loved Burnham as equal as his family, and Hamilton Green, told me that the constant complaint Burnham got was that PPP supporters in places like Skeldon and Springlands were reaping enormous money from the flour, while Georgetowners had to hide and buy their loaves. McDavid said it was clear to the leadership of the PNC including he, McDavid, that the bread ban was terrible politics and had to go.
He explained it was for that reason, a special meeting of the PNC’s general council was called to end the ban. After hours of deliberations, the consensus was the embargo must be lifted. Mc David said the entire hall was in favour. Then Burnham spoke and said it must remain, and remained it did until Burnham died.
This has been a long detour into the subject of how power is wielded in the PPP and PNC by the leader. I used the digression to demonstrate the Leviathan status the leader possesses from the time of Jagan in the PPP and Burnham in the PNC.
An incident with Hoyte as leader of the PNC needs to be mentioned before we get into the details as to who will lead the PPP into the 2020 poll. As anti-government demonstrations swept Guyana under the slogan of slo fyaah/ mo fyaah, a majority of the PNC’s leadership arrived at the conclusion that the PPP was so weakened that it could lose power, so the PPP was now under pressure to discuss power sharing. The PNC leadership then urged Hoyte not to meet President Jagdeo to start what came to be known as the National Dialogue. Even though Hoyte was vastly outvoted, his decision to open the dialogue stood.
This has been the political culture of Guyana’s main parties. Their evolution took the shape of uncontrollable maximum leadership. No one dared to tell Cheddi Jagan to have an official deputy. Robert Corbin chose the person to succeed him and invoked the wrath of several top PNC leaders to the point where his confrontation with Aubrey Norton resulted in a court case. No one dared remonstrate with Jagdeo. He controlled the PPP with iron fist inflexibility after he won the 2001 general election and completely dominated the PPP since then.
There is nothing complex or labyrinthine about the process of leadership changes in the PPP at the moment. If the CCJ rules that the two-term restriction is null and void, Jagdeo will select himself without party confabulation to be the presidential candidate. If Jagdeo cannot run, he doesn’t have to request cooperation from his colleagues to make the 2020 selection. The PPP leadership knows that he will identify the candidate
That there were factions inside the PPP and PNC since their formation is a public fact. But those factions were never allowed the latitude to challenge the leader and when they did, they were ostracized. The list is as follows – Balram Singh Rai versus Jagan; John Carter versus Burnham; Llewellyn John versus Burnham; Green versus Hoyte; Raphael Trotman versus Hoyte; Nagamootoo versus Jagdeo. There is factionalism inside the PPP at the moment and its focus is on Jagdeo.
The anti-Jagdeo faction has two fears and one desire – Jagdeo may not receive the 51 percent because of his past record and secondly, the West will not accept him in power. The desire is that he moves on because he had twelve years, the mantle should be passed. These are plausible positions, but they will evaporate into thin air. Whatever the PPP does from now until 2020 and whoever it selects for 2020, Jagdeo alone will decide that. It is as simple as that.

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