It should, but it won’t be Anil Nandlall

Jul 27, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I am asked the question often since Jagdeo chastised Charles Ramson Jr. for his announcement of wanting to be the PPP’s 2020 presidential candidate – who do I think would be the best presidential candidate for the PPP. On each occasion I said I was not interested in making a choice.
I don’t know who will be the candidate, but this I know – Jagdeo’s voice will be decisive in the outcome. Last week, while delighting ourselves at a fish and plantain chips lime, Dr. David Hinds and I were going through the names that are being talked about – Anil Nandlall, Irfaan Ali and Frank Anthony. I told David I have a choice if those are the three names that have been agreed upon by PPP leaders. Even though I have a name, I would like to see a woman lead the PPP and PNC in the 2020 election.
I would choose Nandlall. I don’t know the other two and I am not familiar with their talent and leadership qualities. It would be wrong for me to identify someone whose record I cannot speak of. This does not mean that Ali and Anthony are not better leaders than Nandlall. Just as I know the background of Nandlall, another analyst can make a case out for Ali or Anthony.
I believe Nandlall’s tape controversy has hurt him. Whether it will derail his presidential bid, I am not certain. It would appear since the tape scandal his political stock has increased, because of the incessant mistakes of the current government. Plus, he is the point man for the PPP’s legal challenges to the government. Such activism must help his standing. We in Guyana tend to forget politicians’ sins quite quickly.
Here is something about Nandlall that I told David. I believe, of the current players in the PPP’s hierarchy, Nandlall has a more lending ear about working class complaints. I have always known him, long before he became a politician, to be someone who was willing to help a human rights cause. This is one of the qualities of Nandlall that I think is not broadly stained on the character make-up of the other contenders and other PPP leaders. As I told David, it may be the way he grew up in Annandale.
As my student, I predicted that Nandlall would make a highly competent lawyer. When I took UG to court in 1996 for lack of transparency in the selection of law applicants, he came on my radar immediately. I remember that morning very well and I remember the first words that came out of my mouth and his mouth. In other words I can recall the conversation very well. I said, ‘I need you to do a case for me but I don’t have a cent’.
He smiled and reacted in a weird way. He told me he heard Vic Puran was forming a political party, so why am I not interested in politics.
I wasn’t interested in that direction of the conversation, so I brought him back to the court case. He agreed. He won the case for me and we renewed our familiarity from our UG days. One day I ran into him and just by chance, I told him I was getting older and my daughter was growing, and it was time to leave the hectic ambience of South Georgetown. And to my surprise, he said that he knew of a plot of land in a high-priced area that was going cheaply.
It is where I currently live. He did all the legal papers. One day he drove on the construction site and handed me an envelope. It had $50,000 in it. He said it was his contribution to the building of my home. The frequent letter writer, GHK Lall, said he knows of three businessmen who financed the construction of my home. I guess he meant Nandlall was one of them.
I parted company with Anil when he became a PPP powerhouse. We had to, because I thought that Jagdeo was even more authoritarian than Burnham. From thereon I hardly met or talked with Anil.
I believe he has far more leadership qualities than his two rivals and should become the presidential candidate if there is no dynamic female contender. I don’t think he will get Jagdeo’s approval. Anil considers himself to be too intellectually smart to have Jagdeo controlling him and Jagdeo knows that. Jagdeo is going to pick a second Ramotar, meaning someone he can control and dictate to. Jagdeo knows that he cannot carry such an approach to Nandlall. I wish Anil the very best in his political future.

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