The PPP is now encamped in the bourgeois class

May 14, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Bharrat Jagdeo needs a refresher to be able to better differentiate between a party’s foundational principles and the ideology through which it hopes to realize its principles and aims.

The constitutions of all parties set out their foundational or core principles. These are usually adumbrated in the preamble of the constitution. If you compare the constitutions of liberal as opposed to labour parties, you will find some overlap in their core principles. They both speak to improving the lot of the people and a commitment to democracy and equality.

But parties can opt for different routes to achieve their foundational principles. Parties can for specific ideologies.  The Jagdeo claims that the PPPC has always had a working-class ideology. But in 1968, the party adopted a Marxist-Leninist ideology.  Since the death of Cheddi Jagan, the party has found itself in an ideological vacuum. It has failed to redefine itself ideologically. Consequently, it exposed itself to being co-opted by the bourgeois class – which is what has happened.

Cheddi Jagan, announced even before the 1992 elections that the achievement of socialism was not on the immediate agenda of any future PPP government. He was forced to walk a tightrope between structural adjustment and transformation. He was being pragmatic but he never abandoned Marxism-Leninism.  After he and his wife died, the PPPC under Jagdeo, adopted, wholesale, a neo-liberal agenda. Throughout Latin America, neo-liberalism, has been associated with growing inequality and pressures on the poor, in stark contradiction to the PPP’s foundational principles.

At the 32nd Congress of the PPP held last week, Jagdeo would have us believe that the ideology of the party has always been working class. But he fails to differentiate between the philosophy of the party and its ideology, and secondly, he fails to account for the direction in which he has moved the party and government.

During his address at the Congress, Jagdeo spoke about the PPP always having one ideology – a working class ideology. But he cannot put a label or name to it because he does not understand the difference between a party’s foundational principles and the ideological means that it uses to realize those principles. He confuses the ends with the means, the philosophy with the ideology. In his Congress address he referenced the preamble principles of political pluralism, ideological pluralism, political democracy, cultural diversity, and racial equality. Jagdeo by now ought to know that these principles are equally shared by parties with different orientations. Even liberal parties espouse equality and cultural diversity.

A party’s principles can encompass a wide range of general concepts such as freedom, equality, democracy, cultural diversity, and racial equality. But these principles are not necessarily exclusive to any specific ‘ism’ or ideology. On the other hand, every party needs a specific and coherent set of beliefs, values and doctrines to achieve its principles. Pursue its goals and attain its goals.   It includes a party’s stance on issues such as the role of government, economic systems, social policies, and international relations.  Ideologies provide a more structured framework for understanding how a party positions itself within the political spectrum and how it seeks to achieve its objectives. The PPP has bound itself to the core principles as outlined in the preamble of its constitution. But it failed to formally proclaim the ideology through which it will pursue these aims. Its failure to proclaim must not be confused with the absence of a guiding ideology of the party because the PPP is now firmly encamped with the bourgeois class and is doing the bidding of this class.

Jagdeo stays clear of engaging in an ideological debate. I believe he is ill-equipped, intellectually, and otherwise, to do so. And so, he seeks refuge in the bland statement that there are forces which want to drag the party into a sterile debate about ‘isms’. It is a myth to assume that a political party can be stripped of ‘isms’. When a party ditches Marxism-Leninism as its guiding ideology, it is replaced by another ‘ism’ and no one needs to second guess what is the guiding ‘ism’ within the PPP at present.

The PPPC and Jagdeo are within their right to ditch Marxism-Leninism and references to socialism from the party’s constitution. However, both Jagdeo and the PPP must not shy away from a debate over why these references should be expunged from the party’s constitution. They must also not fail in their duty to ideologically redefine the party rather than seeking refuge in the false equivalence between an ideology and a party’s foundational principles.

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• Bharrat Jagde, Cheddi Jagan, foundational, principles, socialism

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