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My choice for the PPP’s presidential candidate

Jan 16, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There are three attitudes to the presidential nominee of the PPP and PNC for the next general election (which in the view of this analyst should be in April because of the no-confidence vote). One is I don’t support those parties so I don’t care who it is.
Another position is that it that doesn’t matter to me because they are all the same. Thirdly, it matters to me because the president constitutionally is a leviathan in this country.
My choice for the PNC is David Granger. But given his heath issues, can he be an effective head of government over a five-year period? If Granger is not interested then the PNC is in trouble because there is no one in that party whose political trustworthiness is even close to Granger’s. And even Granger has his shortcomings.
For the PPP, I think Anil Nandlall has certain endowments that are clear advantages over his rivals that should be considered by his judgers. I think the fight is between Irfaan Ali, Dr. Frank Anthony and Nandlall. This is the reality although Dr. Vindya Persaud’s victory will mean that the PPP may be transforming itself.
The problem with Dr. Persaud’s candidacy is that it hasn’t got the strong support in the 35 member central committee.
I cannot comment on Anthony and Ali. I can only evaluate them based on their status in Guyana. I know Nandlall personally; therefore, I am familiar with some aspects of his personality. Every citizen in a country must have a set of criteria by which he or she judges the politician that wants to rule his/her country.
I support Corbyn in the UK. He has socialist policies. I go for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the US for reasons that are somewhat similar. I like Anil because he is a people- oriented person. When you stack him up against his competitors, in this context, he is far ahead of them. Anil, outside of power, has always been receptive to human rights issues.
You can literally point to three figures only in the past forty years in this country who will litigate in the courts for poor people – Benjamin Gibson, Nigel Hughes and Anil Nandlall. All three (Gibson is dead) were the kinds of lawyers that you could go to and plead a case of cruel injustice and they will help you.
Despite the huge names in the legal arena that got fame over human rights causes, it was all a farce because such lawyers were aloof and their human rights agenda were off limits to poor people.
I grew up hearing about Miles Fitzpatrick and David De Caires and how they fought Burnham. An abused employee from the working class couldn’t even enter their chambers. It was the same with Llewellyn John. This was what I liked about Anil.
When he became Attorney-General, he still maintained that approach. I think Nandlall is the kind of person that the poorer folks could interface with.
Secondly, my long felt belief about Nandlall when he was my student was that he would be a very competent and effective lawyer. If you stack up Ali, Anthony and Nandlall in terms of intellectual quality, without being disrespectful to the other two, Anil has a wide margin in front of them. I think given its troubled ontology, Guyana needs a president who is intellectually astute.
My honest feeling is that the next general election is going to produce either a PPP or PNC minority president. I welcome the other three parties that have been formed and will personally assist them in ways that I can.
By way of this column, I am telling them they can call on me but my analysis of the demographic configuration informs me that one of the two major parties will lead a minority government.
It means if it is Granger, he is likely to be the next president. Or the next president can either be Ali, Anthony or Nandlall. I feel Nandlall is the better candidate for the PPP. What this means is that the PPP’s central committee should go through an exhausting process of choosing their man for the job.
I now come to the part that is controversial. Except for Doodnauth Singh under Jagdeo’s presidency, I believe Nandlall has been a better Attorney-General than Basil Williams.
I wouldn’t insult Nandlall by comparing him with Charles Ramson. Nandlall has his large shortcomings but he is far more impressive than Ramson has been. Since losing power, Nandlall has been a thoroughbred for the PPP. He has virtually occupied the opposition spotlight second only to Jagdeo. I really do wish him well. I hope he gets the nod.

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