The man who would be king

Jan 21, 2019 Editorial, Features / Columnists

This is the man who could be king. The word is about youth and experience; all supporting sounds from friendly sources with a huge stake in a successful presidential candidate and one that is capable of delivering something, anything. What follows is intended to be an uncomplicated look that is neither unreasonable nor unkind at the opposition’s figure and what kind of shadow it right now, and could later, cast on this society.
Youthful sponsorship should never be faulted. Yet such must be contemplated and implemented with great caution; a history of personal idealism and leadership progressivism have to feature prominently in the makeup of any champions. There are grave deficiencies on this score. The creator of this candidate is himself a bottomless reservoir of proven malice and vindictiveness; sprinkled far and apart with the minimally acceptable and the barely passable. With such a porous sponsor, the first albatross hangs uneasily on the newly-minted candidate.
The problem was compounded when Mrs. Janet Jagan went into a far, dark corner of her political laboratory and came up with what was believed to be a promising youthful product and result: malleable, manipulatable, cultivatable. Instead, this regrettable experiment with a youthful unknown has been an unparalleled nightmare never experienced before or since; a daytime, real-time, primetime, and garbage time descent into the monstrous and barbaric. Frankenstein it was at the inception; Frankenstein, it has been ever since: imperiling, expanding, devastating. With a precedent like that there will be few Guyanese prepared to commit through an electoral plunge. The specter of the power behind the presidential throne is too real, too unnerving, too unpalatable. Numerous reports of social media reaction indicate disbelief, scorn, and disgust. It is powerful testimony of the lengths that some will go, even when the visceral responses of the rational and modern (and still hopeful) within the party could be anticipated. This society-taken as a whole-already refuses to absorb and embrace another Frankenstein. Or a crafty senior one with a junior one rendered impotent on the job and at the forefront. Not at this particular juncture; not how matters delicately dangle.
As to the candidate himself, the list of negatives speaks eloquently, but disturbingly of someone highly questionable; deeply troubling; and broadly without footing. Ministerial history furnishes volumes as to serious matters done unfitly and improperly. Adversaries should have a field day with that, along with damning matters engaging the bar and with the blindfolded lady and her scales waiting. The scales cannot be other than titled unfavorably, given the weight of incontestable reality. There is more to come. Then there was the late developing affair involving credentials. If the evidence publicized is accurate, then those credentials are not worth the parchment on which the cheap, perhaps paid for, calligraphy is imprinted. When these issues are taken together, this is not excess baggage, but representative of toxic cargo-still being compiled, and still to see the light. Together, this is evidence of a second tightening albatross.

Presidential candidates and actual presidents must be held at higher elevations. This starts with character; character decides values; values deliver standards; standards drive culture; and culture determines what is firmly established as the norm. Cumulatively, this translates to: credibility and trust. Meaning that person who is inspiring, is also one deserving of a following. A national one. It is neither thought nor believed that the anointed PPP presidential candidate possesses the potential to deliver. He lacks that indefinable presence; projects neither image nor confidence. He is not seen by either the literate or the lesser as being a credible figure, or one that can be much trusted. Therein perches the third albatross. In sum, this is the political and social arithmetic of three albatrosses strangling a single neck. It is two too many. It is as negative as a no-confidence vote. Except that this one is in January and is already falling face downward.

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