Who is PPP, who is PNC

Sep 16, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – He is ah PPP maan. No red shirt needed, no identifying marks, save for one. Demographics. It was the same across the street. He is a PNC maan. Again, no green shirt, just membership in a section of the Guyana demographic. It has been so for the last 75 years. By those automatic conclusions, the late Cammie Ramsaroop could have been misidentified as a PPP powerhouse, and the departed Dr. Roger Luncheon fingered as a ‘strang’ PNC presence. Guyanese are in for a tougher time now, reflexive interpretations got more difficult. Enter WIN. Oh Lord! What was simple and streamlined is now tangled and complicated.

Who is PPP? Who is PNC? Some indigenous gravitated to WIN, and more than a sizable section of African Guyanese took the plunge for WIN. Despite all the chatter of crossover votes, few were the Guyanese of Indian descent, who took a step in any direction, other than toward the PPP. Nonetheless, the puzzle hasn’t gone anywhere: who is PPP, who is PNC? The neat lines of separation, accurately or ignorantly, are not as neat, and easily recognisable, as before. The hard, immovable conclusions that made political identification such a no brainer (for some folks) have now blurred into a bit of a lumpen, unrecognisable mass. Why did this new guy had to raise his hand and complicated what was straight and true for decades? Is that easing of racial tensions, by the unlikeliest of sources? Probably.

Ah! This state called democracy can be tricky. Since I’m on a self-imposed sabbatical, I can’t say much about the treachery of those who were trusted to do the right thing, but bypassed their memories in the rush of events. Now there is Mr. WIN and his team, and his hordes of supporters, an eclectic spoonful from Guyana’s racial stew. Sixteen seats in parliament after a few months of stepping into the local political cauldron is some achievement, regardless of what anybody thinks of him. The fact that he attracted votes from the traditional PNC base and also from the PPP interior resting places cannot be taken lightly, can help reduce racial tension, since identification about who is who now blurs. In addition, he did collect some people who are oldline PPP, which says something. It’s not quite universal appeal, as yet. But inroads have been made. The PPP is rocking back and forth publicly, while the PNC is still trying to figure out the name of the meteor that struck its head.

To enlighten the lazy and low turnout citizens of Guyana, it was the illuminating figure of PPP General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who opened a new can of worms with the strangest of declarations. He prefers to woo and work with the PNC (longstanding hatreds notwithstanding) than with WIN. I interpret that visionary development as a move by the PPP to partner with the PNC to encircle WIN and reduce it to scrap metal. For one thing, Dr. Jagdeo is morbidly afraid that the PPP could end up in the same boat as the PNC. That is, the boat of lost votes. The gamechanger would be if the PPP is generous to the masses with oil money. Jagdeo is going to be closing in on three score and ten years, so he could take a break and spend his earnings, whatever the sources. On the other hand, President Irfaan Ali wouldn’t even be 50 by 2030, so what prospects for the rest of his life, other than count his cash? Frankly, I don’t see him being too pleased about being Leader of the Opposition.

Personally speaking, that’s why Dr. Jagdeo made his preemptive move with a public signal to the PNC. Stop crying and get moving. Join with the PPP. This WIN beast must be stopped in its tracks, not allowed to gain any additional momentum. If not both the PPP and PNC could be transformed into museum fossils. Why, the guy could take over the whole damn place! Worse still, he could put an end to racial tensions; or, at least, keep such at much lower levels. At levels where the PPP and PNC couldn’t rekindle to any great heat. Meanwhile, what is his rainbow of supporters going to do, fight among themselves? What commenced as election competition could become a dream. Martin echoes….

Now the racial map has been redrawn, but the job is incomplete. The PPP could regain some ground, but that depends on its generosity with oil cash. Sacrifices will have to be made, with insiders forced to collect less. As for Mr. WIN, he has the cards. Say the right things, and leave the big boys to gang up on him and further expose themselves, from nakedness to weakness. He captured the biggest weapon of the bigger group -racial tensions.

(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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• African Guyanese, GHK Lall, Indigenous, PNC, PPP

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