Democracy and the PPP

Aug 28, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Damn!  I/we keep making the same mistake, a fatal one, again and again.  Democracy and the PPP: in, from, by the PPP.  Reality check: democracy and the PPP do not belong in the same sentence.  Whether PPP as political party, or PPP as a government (of anything), democracy is a stranger, an interloper, a feared specter, in that space.  How so?  Why say so?  Where and when is this so apparent?  That democracy and the PPP are incompatible.  I urge every thinking Guyanese-partisans and the liberated, tribalists and the emancipated, bigots and the newly reoriented – to think of this in a particular context, and the substance of what I tender should register beyond argument, any further verbal fisticuffs.

Think of a married couple with chronic compatibility issues before a learned but weary judge who has heard it all.  The judgment is inevitable: irreconcilable differences.  I call that the essence of commonsense.  Why maintain the public façade when the internals are a storm-tossed sea?  Why continue with the intolerable tortures, when the domestics are so out of whack, struggle to stay together by an expenditure of exhausting energy?  Not worth it anymore!  Not worth the pretense that neighbors and well-wishers, friends and in-laws, all know has been a long, dreary exercise in futility.  It is better to cut the chord and free each other to carry on towards new adventures.  Now that is living and not pretending, and it should not be alien to the PPP.  Maybe Jagdeo, but not Mohabir.  That is going after life with a zest and not getting bogged down in a political life that is a zoo without cages and gates, one that presses in with demands from all sides at the same time.  Jagdeo knows that for sure; on the other hand, Nandlall’s mind doesn’t work that way.  I spare the president today because this is, shall I say, above the sum of his allowances.  I single out Jagdeo and Anil because these two champions of democracy love to wax profusely about it yetare so naked from the neck down where real democracy is concerned.  As they go, so does the PPP go.

Where democracy and the PPP is concerned, one fancies himself as the theorist, while the other is happy to perform in the role as contortionist.  Considering these two inspiring political characters, the keen eyed should have picked up that the roles are interchangeable.  It is what I like about the PPP (party or national government) -it is versatile, can hop from foot to foot.  Or change heads.  I make this simple as simple can be.

Let’s not get trapped in that sophisticated construct about agreeing to disagree.  Where democracy and the PPP is concerned, disagreeing is fine, but only if the result is agreeing with whatever new gimmick is being pitched by Jagdeo.  The best environment is when there is no disagreement, absolutely none.  Not one.  Not from any one source.  Not from one damn citizen.  This is the book of Jagdeo, the sacred text of Nandlall, from which he cites, with the occasional platitude about democracy’s ideals dribbling out from the corner of his mouth to keep things honest.  See! I told everyone that these guys don’t mess around. In this season and context, Ali doesn’t count, which is the small matter and reality of being a convenient placeholder.  Improper pursuant to a strict following of the Constitution, but it is how democracy works, for there is the freedom to do just so.  Here is something else for Guyanese to chew on: given the tirades that Dr. Ali has shared in his four years, he has the potential to be worse than the two others together.  Frightening for sure, but there is a man who sees himself as God, king, constitution, and country all rolled into one.  Forget about divine right of kings.  In Dr. Ali’s head, he is the divine personified, his idea of democracy exalted.  Somebody, do me a favor and get me out of here.

Disagreeing with these guys is dangerous. For proof check with me.  To disagree with them is to damage the PPP franchise.  To disagree with them is to degrade the PPP brand.  To agree blindly is the PPP version of democracy.  To agree totally is fairness, justice, truth, and the Guyanese Way.  Just ask Dr. Anil “No free-for-all” Nandlall. To agree is fidelity to the PPP, certificate of ‘reliable’ citizenship, the self-preservation afforded by certain kinds of erudition.  The kinds that Jagdeo and Nandlall advocate and call democracy.  Therefore, it is healthy to observe skullduggery and call it PPP spirituality.  It is wise to appreciate bigotry at work but label it the blessing of group therapy.  But, most of all, it is the height of democracy to absorb leadership malevolence and virulence but shrug those off as things of innocence, with no lasting offense.

Both Jagdeo and Nandlall are so much in love with themselves that instead of patiently working through differences, they prefer driving a jackass cart over them. Where there is no readiness towards learning and understanding, then there is only baleful contentment with stunting any opening for growing. When the media is seen as an obstacle then blow it away or undermine it by going around it.  That’s PPP democracy.  When public officers are honest, then get rid of them.  Safeguards against unpleasant shocks later.  That’s PPP-style democracy.  When public institutions or procedures are too cumbersome (get in the way), then rearrange them.  That’s the PPP and its springs of democracy. When whomever and whatever can be manipulated for the PPP’s interests, but against those of the people, then that is as good as democracy gets. As in war, where people serve as cannon fodder, so in peace (and PPP democracy) people are what is fed into the shredder.  In a thumbnail, democracy and the PPP do not belong together. Not in the same sentence.  Not on in any known universe.

(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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• Democracy, GHK Lall, Government, party, political

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