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A case for Irfaan Ali
DEAR EDITOR,
As the General Elections draw closer as a consequence of the successful No Confidence vote, speculation is rife on who will be the Presidential candidate for the PPP/C. Several names are being bandied about, such as Anil Nandlall, Priya Manickchand, Frank Anthony, Irfaan Ali and Charles Ramson Jr., all who in their own right have the credentials to be that person.
This speaks volumes of the strength of the party and the fact that any of those persons are far superior to anyone from the current caretaker government. I say caretaker based upon the fact that with the successful No Confidence vote the government should have resigned by now.
This therefore means that the people of Guyana can be assured that the cabinet of the next PPP/C government will be of a very high quality. Based upon my assessment of the potential candidates and the current environment we find ourselves in, I have no doubt that the best person to run this country at this time is Mr. Irfaan Ali.
Mr. Ali possesses the qualities desired in a new leader at this time. He is relatively young, but possesses the experience as a cabinet member and a parliamentarian that is necessary at this time.
As Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Ali transformed that Ministry into an efficient and productive one. The morale of the staff at that Ministry during his tenure was at the highest. He earned the reputation as an accommodating person, willing to engage with persons from all strata of society.
One of the most commendable aspects of his term as Minister was the distribution of house lots and the creation of Housing Schemes that were racially mixed. Prior to his tenure, villages were mostly divided along racial lines. (Buxton, Enmore, Melanie, Annandale, Success, Plaisance etc.), but because of Mr. Ali’s vision this is no longer the case (Parfaite Harmonie, Diamond, De Willem, Onderneeming, West Minister, etc.). Persons were given house lots randomly, with no prior knowledge of who their neighbours would be. That policy was a great strategy for creating cohesiveness amongst the different races. Persons now lived in close proximity to persons of other races and religion, which has created the opportunity for us to better understand each other.
It is this sort of insight that I believe will enable Mr. Ali to be a great President.
Mr. Irfaan Ali has been a thorn in the side of the Government as head of the PAC in parliament for the past three years. He has consistently identified numerous malfeasance committed by the government and their general wastage of the people’s funds. Mr. Ali’s grasp of the economic realities of the country and the direction in which we should be heading in, is on full display in the parliament. His knowledge in this area will serve him well as President as we prepare for the benefits of the oil discovery to redound to us all.
The government’s current attempts to discredit Mr. Ali only has served to confirm what we all knew, which is that they see him as a major threat to their reign. They believe that by discrediting him, he will lose support, this has backfired however. It has only served to make him look more defiant and revolutionary.
We of the PPP/C party will rally around our candidate and ensure that he is elevated to the position of President of our great land.
In 1992, when Pakistan won the Cricket World Cup, I can vividly remember the crowd chanting as he took them to victory, “Who is the man? Inzamam.” Come next election, we will be chanting “Who is the man? Irfaan, as he takes us to victory.
Devindra Persaud
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