Can President Ali break the Jagdeoites’ puppetry and be his own man?

Sep 07, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Let’s be honest: is there any doubt President Ali is the Jagdeoites’ puppet?
Everyone knows the farce that was the last PPP party congress led to the Jagdeoites’ domination and their eventual selection of the man they view as their best hope of solid puppetry.
Even those who knew this did not expect the emasculation of Ali to be this swift, macabre and insulting. Whether it is the announcement of Jagdeo’s vice-presidency immediately after the swearing-in while other Cabinet positions were left for later or that natural resources and finance remains under the presidency and thus under Jagdeo’s influence or the recycling of failed leaders who dutifully served Jagdeo or the fact that Jagdeo has been more prominent in masquerading the government’s business ahead of Ali in the public’s eye since the change in government, it is very evident to even the blind what is happening here.
Even Ramotar wasn’t this callously sidelined and dominated this early by his puppet master who incidentally did not elevate himself to the presidency, sorry, err, vice-presidency.
The signal from the Jagdeoites is unequivocal: we own and control Ali. He is ours. It is now patently clear that President, err Vice-President, Jagdeo and his band of Jagdeoites are in charge. Robert Persaud weakening Hugh Todd, really! Kwame McCoy masterminding the PM, are you kidding me!
Do the Jagdeoites’ really think they can get away with leaving the resources and riches of this country under the direct control of a man who oversaw the most corrupt and kleptocratic rule in this country’s history? Yes, they can if Ali remains under their boot. Do they think Guyanese people are fools? Yes, they do. Many voted for them and for this farce.
Jagdeo is a miserably, atrociously failed leader. We saw that horror show and we’re seeing it again. There is nothing there in terms of political integrity, strategic intelligence, patriotism and an understanding of nation
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building to change Guyana for the better if Irfaan Ali remains tucked under Jagdeo’s political frock. That this sickening puppetry is unfolding on the heels of APNU’s gargantuan constitutional degradation of our flimsy democracy in the past year and a half portends serious trouble ahead unless Ali develops the testicular fortitude to break free or unless the West has enough of this miasma.
On this note, the government’s recent statements on Venezuela in the Lima group meeting that contravened the US’ position is cause for alarm.
This country is too broken for another clownish failed Jagdeoites’ puppet show. With oil in the doldrums and Exxon slashing spending on offshore assets, there is no oil bonanza. So, beware of the real possibility of a blind eye to the resurgence of the narco-economy.
Again, that will be settling down right in America’s crosshairs.
If Ali wants a legacy other than being defined into posterity as a puppet and an inevitably failed one, he has a great opportunity to break free and shape his own legacy. He is obviously brighter than Jagdeo and Ramotar combined.
He outperforms them too, masterminding the country’s finest housing drive even as Jagdeo’s narco-crazed economy withered around him. He is coming to power with the Jagdeoites in a much weaker position now coming from the opposition benches compared to when Ramotar ascended when the Jagdeoites controlled the kingdom and its police, army, intelligence arm, etc. That is an immense difference that gives Ali a significant aperture to carve out his own course.
Ali also has a template and precedent to follow in Jagdeo’s sidelining of Janet Jagan to seize control of the party. Then there is the West. It will not tolerate the emergence of another narco-state run by a government enthralled with giving feral blasts to the West or a failed state that creates turmoil for its massive investment in Guyana’s oil. Nor will the West tolerate the lack of serious constitutional change to revisit another disaster like what happened in the past year and a half. The current system is a danger to the billions of US dollars they have invested in our oil industry. They will want a break from the past and stability and their military might is cocked and ready in the Western hemisphere because of Venezuela.
Plus, not because the West helped to install the PPP to its rightful place for an election it fairly won, it means the West is fawning over the PPP. In light of the US’ recent escalations against China and to a lesser extent Russia and given America’s grave concerns about Russian and Chinese geopolitical enlargement in the western hemisphere, there will remain heathy mistrust for an inherently dictatorial and corrupt political entity dominated by a Russian-trained leader that was openly confrontational and ‘feral blasting’ against the West just six years ago (yes, seems like an eternity). Ali has an opportunity to work with the West to unshackle himself from the Jagdeoites. In fact, the West may want it no other way.
Then there is the bull in a China-shop reality of the Jagdeoites’ monstrous liability, which demolished Ramotar and will demolish Ali if he remains yoked to the Jagdeoites. The Jagdeoites are incapable of delivering any political security to Ali’s presidency or to the PPP. The no-confidence vote was a terrible gamble by the Jagdeoites because APNU would have likely won the election if they had called an election right away. Ali was seen with disdain as a puppet of the Jagdeoites and there was enough mistrust in the entire affair from crossover voters to give APNU the slight edge. That mistrust of the Ali-Jagdeoites’ nexus will resurge now that APNU’s chicanery has evaporated. Even a year and a half after APNU’s descent into unbridled perfidy, the PPP won just a one-seat majority. Ali is still viewed derisively as a Jagdeoites’ hack and the PPP still remains just one Charandass vote away from annihilation. It means the PPP has not improved politically even after so much pity for its cause as well as APNU’s utter catastrophic meltdown.
In 5 years, demographic changes, expected massive internal change in the PNC, the expected moral and geopolitical descent into hell in this country under the domination of the Jagdeoites, and the likely rise of Mixed and Amerindian parties looking for their slice of the oil pie, means Ali is likely looking at one term and done unless dramatic alterations are made. Add the constitutional changes and electoral strengthening the West will inflexibly demand, the PPP, like the PNC, are going to face massive tribulation for political survival.
A Jagdeoites yes-man is a gargantuan liability in this context, not only from these factors but also from the fact that he becomes very dispensable when the tides of change inevitably strike. Forget the external factors, for his own survival, Ali may need to break free. It would be a travesty for any leader holding the reins to the presidency to remain in puppetry servitude in this environment of promising change and with formidable forces demanding democratic advancement and better governance. Borrowing from the Nike ad, can Ali just do it?
Yours faithfully,
M. Maxwell

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