PPP’s leadership creating political hysteria to mobilise their support base

Jul 12, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

I have followed the polemics resulting from statements made by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan and Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo at a government outreach in Bartica a few weeks ago. The apparent offending remarks, “ war break”, “no registration, no elections” and “trouble” if there is no House to House registration or be ready for protest, are not offensive in the context of the Guyanese political culture. This is contrary to the position that is being made out by the opposition PPP and their supporters.
The decision of the opposition to take these matters to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) is politicking – playing to its support base. It is also an abuse of these national institutions. By complaining to these institutions, the political opposition is attempting to entrap them to assume partisan political positions.
In the run-up to the 2011 General and Regional Elections speaking at ACDA’s public meeting in Beterverwagting (BV), I stated what should be the African Community’s position on shared governance after the elections. At that meeting, I said that we went to BV to read “the riot act”. This statement was seized on by the PPP and their propaganda letter writers to claim that I was calling on Africans to engage in riotous actions. One doesn’t have to be a scholar on Guyanese social/political-cultural history to appreciate that this usage has a history that is not offensive. In spite of this reality, the PPP elements reported me to the police and the ERC after creating much hysteria over nothing.
Here again, we are seeing the similar tactics being employed by the PPP and their propaganda agents in relation to the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance’s speeches in Bartica.
My prediction is that nothing would come out of these reports to the ERC and the police, since the opposition has nothing of substance to stand on. I am sure that the PPP’s leadership is well aware of this outcome, but they are more concerned with creating political hysteria to mobilise their support base. But the national political consciousness makes this type of tactics ineffective and counterproductive.
The PPP’s leadership will continue on this path, guided by its Machiavellian belief that some actions are better than no action in spite of the consequences.
Tacuma Ogunseye

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