Latest update February 25th, 2025 10:18 AM
Mar 29, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News-The 2011 elections constituted a referendum on the Bharrat Jagdeo’s 12-year rule. It is known how that ended: for the first time Guyana had a majority government.
In 2015, Donald Ramotar was able to regain much of the support which the PPP/C had lost. But because the AFC had joined in a coalition with the PNC/R, the Coalition managed to narrowly scrape a victory.
Nonetheless, credit must go to Ramotar for regaining significant support which the party had lost as a result of displeasure with Jagdeo’s latter tenure. The 2020 elections victory had a lot to do with the support Ramotar was able to claw back in 2015.
Ironically, it was after the 2015 elections loss that Jagdeo seized full control of the PPP/C and effectively banished the party’s Old Guard. Ramotar was displaced as General Secretary and most of the Old Guards were sidelined.
Jagdeo’s seizure of the party’s machinery did not substantially improve the party’s showing in the 2020 elections. The PPP/C barely scraped 50.3 percent of the total votes. Had the AFC not become a footstool of the APNU+AFC, the PPP/C may not have won the election at all.
There is therefore no credibility in the contention that it was Jagdeo’s efforts which brought the PPP/C victory in 2020. The 2015 elections which the PPP/C lost, had seen the PPP/C regain ground which it had ceded to the AFC and it was the AFC which cost the Coalition the elections.
The aftermath of the 2020 elections witnessed the almost total severing of the Old Guard. The only member of that Guard represented within the Cabinet is Gail Teixeira. Roger Luncheon, one of Jagan’s most trusted lieutenants, is now employed in a mere advisory capacity, a position which he perceived as a form of charity.
But if the full truth be told, what was severed was merely the remnants of the Old Guard. Janet Jagan had been effectively dissed when she was described as a private citizen. She died a bitter woman, her influence withering away as fast as communism did 30 years ago. She had created a monster which ended up turning against her.
Donald Ramotar was shuttled out of the General Secretary post. He is now considered an elder statesman. Clement Rohee is no longer in the political limelight, being reduced to penning letters in the letter columns of the newspapers.
For weeks after his death, the PPP/C could not send a chartered aircraft to return the remains of Komal Chand from Cuba. Nothing has been heard in public for some years from Khellewan Lall. And Indra Chanderpal has not been part of the new PPP/C makeup in the National Assembly, despite her still having solid support among the party’s base.
The Old Guard has been put out to pasture. The PPP/C government is now dominated by political stragglers.
This past week a letter appeared from Clement Rohee, a member of the Old Guard, eulogising Jagan. He admitted that an event to commemorate the 24th anniversary of Jagan’s death, which was held at Red House, was modestly attended.
Rohee noted that “Jagan was no fake socialist nor dye-in-the-wool communist as some try to paint him. Neither was he dogmatic or slavish in his analysis. He was no opportunist, racist nor publicity seeking egotistical politician. And if there was any pragmatism in his theory and practice, it was not in pursuit of his personal interests, on the contrary, it was because for him, practice is the criterion of truth.”
He ended the letter as follows: “From all indications, it is unlikely that he [Jagan] will disappear into obscurity. After all, “The traditions of all dead generations weigh like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
The New Guard is having no nightmares about their departure from the Jagan tradition. Certainly, within the PPP, Jagan has become a footnote. His party no longer embraces his ideological or political stance, however flexible these may have been. The PPP/C, under Jagdeo, has been seized by the bourgeoisie class. Even the petite-bourgeoisie and the many pretenders, within the PPP, to membership of this class, have been sidelined. The PPP is controlled from within by a cabal which represents the interest of the rich and powerful that reside outside the party.
The PPP is a working class party only in memory. Its present policies are neo-liberal, backward and short-term in orientation. The party has no world outlook. It has become a receptacle for personal ambitions and aggrandizement. If there is anything which can be said about the PPP of today is Jagan’s working class sympathies have been superseded by political opportunism.
The tragedy of it all is that the Old Guard does not have the will to stoke a rebellion within the PPP to restore Jagan’s legacy. The Old Guard is on its way out and with it any chance of resurrecting the ideas of Jagan.
No one is prepared to take on Jagdeo. Not because he is all-powerful. But because many of those who followed Cheddi were no different from the present bunch which dominates the PPP/C.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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