Jagdeo is not about One Guyana; he is about My Guyana

Jun 06, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Jessie Burnham warned the nation about Forbes Burnham. Clinton Urling signaled what he saw as popular sentiment within the PPP/C against Bharrat Jagdeo.

No one took Jessie Burnham, the sister of Forbes Burnham seriously. It was a costly and painful oversight as anyone who lived through the period 1968-1985 can attest. Following the defeat of the PPP/C in 2015, Urling was candid about the sentiments among the supporters of the PPP/C. The businessman and former President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry had appeared on the PPP/C’s list of candidates for the 2015 general and regional elections.

After the PPPC’s defeat, Urling wrote a letter that appeared in the Stabroek News. In that missive, he relayed that by the time he had joined the PPP/C’s campaign, it was obvious that Jagdeo was the party’s central figure and the dominant force in the PPP/C’s election strategies.

Based on this observation, Urling was of the view that the 2015 election was Jagdeo’s to win or lose. The PPP/C lost. He noted the sense of demoralization within the PPP/C which greeted this defeat. This is how he put it, “…many in the party seemed to be at a loss about the party’s direction and the apparatus literally stopped functioning for a day or two after the elections, coupled with an information blackout. The Freedom House party headquarters was a ghost town and little was being told to any party candidate or supporter.”

He then said that there was no place he did not turn that party members and supporters were not whispering and angrily criticizing Jagdeo’s divisive campaign rhetoric. He said that many party members, both junior and senior, placed the blame for the party’s defeat squarely on Jagdeo’s shoulders. He went on to add that: “The general belief was that under his presidency, the party lost its way from being a “wholesome” political organisation which attracted many friends and allies to becoming one where perceptions of impropriety and corruption had created ominous clouds over the party’s image.”

Urling expressed the view that while the loss was disappointing, it presented an opportunity for rebirth, redemption and change in the manner in which the party operated. He said that justifiably, the defeat should have kick started the process of the party distancing itself from the politics of Jagdeo and his loyal circle. As we now know, this did not happen. Instead, Jagdeo was able, with the support of the leadership of the party, to commandeer the reins of the party. The divisive rhetoric continued in the run-up to the 2020 elections.

But this time, it was not as costly thanks to the disastrous performance of the APNU+AFC government. The APNU+AFC however had shot itself in the foot by its poor performance in government, its stubborn refusal to resign following the passage of the no-confidence motion and its controversial appointment, without following the prescribed constitutional provision, of a Chairman of GECOM. It was APNU+AFC’s failures rather than Jagdeo’s leadership which allowed the PPP/C to return to power in 2020 with a slim one-seat majority. Today, Jagdeo is still reigning supreme and is holding one-man press conferences spewing the same divisive rhetoric which led to the PPP/C’s defeat in 2015. As Urling predicted, the party would not be able to reinvent itself with Jagdeo at the helm. But Urling was not singular in his view. Former PPP Executive Committee member, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran said almost the same thing. Following the PPP/C’s defeat at the 2015 polls, Ramkarran predicted that there was unlikely to be any internal movement for reform because of Jagdeo’s stranglehold on the leadership.

He even predicted correctly that the old guard would be sidelined. It did happen and now most of them are onlookers to developments within the party. Party supporters have to now face the ignominy of watching the party host one-man press conferences every Thursday. Jagdeo takes to the stage with his incessant divisive rhetoric, the same divisive talk that caused the PPP/C to lose the 2015 elections and which has now given a new lease on life to the PNCR.

But Jagdeo may soon have an awakening. At his most recent press conference, he claimed not to know who was Ray Daggers. He may soon know because, as mentioned before in this column, three supporters of the PPP, are contemplating imitating Dagger’s Freedom Walk. They want to do so to demand that the PPP/C hold its long and constitutionally overdue Congress.

There is even talk about moving a motion calling for Jagdeo’s removal. Already, one person is said to putting out feelers as to how persons would feel about asking Ralph Ramkarran to return to lead the PPP/C. Jagdeo is therefore not sitting as secure as his loyalists may believe. He is on shifting sands.

 

 

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• Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, PPP/C against Bharrat Jagdeo, PPP/C in 2015, Stabroek News, Urling

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