The great political poaching season

Oct 24, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – There’s hunting season. There’s fishing season. And then, in Guyanese politics, there’s poaching season, a year-round affair brought to you by the PPPC, whose leaders seem to have made a national sport of enticing, recruiting, and attracting senior or promising APNU figures.

One could call it strategy. Others might call it scavenging. But whatever you call it, it’s deliberate. Calculated. A mission with GPS coordinates fixed on the heart of the Opposition.

The logic is simple:  why defeat your enemies in open combat when you can just buy their generals lunch?

The PPPC leader knows the psychological warfare game. Each crossover from the APNU is not just one gained, but one lost to the other side. It’s the political version of taking away your rival’s striker and making him your mascot.

And so, the calls go out. The whispers begin. A soft offer here. A position there. A diplomatic post. A board chairmanship. A comfy seat on some commission that meets twice a year but pays monthly. It’s all part of the grand strategy: weaken the Opposition by seducing its wounded.

Of course, there’s no shortage of willing participants. The Opposition has its share of the disgruntled — those who feel overlooked, underappreciated, or simply tired of sitting on the losing bench. They want relevance, they want recognition, and there are some who most of all want a paycheck with government letterhead.

Then there are the opportunists. The professional defectors. The ones who check the political weather report every morning before declaring their loyalty. Their motto? Principles are fine, but pensions are finer.

But let us be fair, there are also those who see the PPPC as better and well-meaning. These are the genuine ones who cross over because they want to do right.

For the PPPC, it doesn’t matter. Dissident, discard, opportunist — all are welcome. The policy is clear: the enemy of my enemy is my new comrade.

It’s an open-door policy with revolving hinges. Come in, sit down, sign up. The leadership smiles for the cameras, declares a new era of “inclusivity,” and issues a statement about “national unity.”

But beneath the surface, there’s tension. Real, palpable, fist-on-table tension.

Because for every crossover given a post, a contract, or a title, there’s a faithful PPPC stalwart left gritting his teeth in silence. That’s one less chair at the table for the comrades who have been sweating it out since 1992. The ones who endured the wilderness years. The ones who painted walls, carried flags, and distributed manifestos under the rain.

And now, they watch as a former APNU critic, who once called their party corrupt and dictatorial, is embraced like a long-lost brother and rewarded with a shiny new office and a chauffeur-driven SUV.

The irony is pungent. The hypocrisy, bold-faced. But in politics, memory is a convenience, except for those who still remember.

The rank and file remember. They remember who called them names in public. Who tried to embarrass their leaders. Who cheered when the PPPC lost. And now they see those same faces being toasted at State House functions.

It stings. It festers. It breeds resentment.

The leadership knows it. But the leadership is trapped. Because once you start the poaching game, you can’t stop. Every crossover becomes a trophy, a headline, a psychological blow to the Opposition. It’s addictive.

The PPPC has become like a fisherman who can’t stop casting the net even when the boat is full and the crew is complaining.

And so, the internal dilemma deepens. You can’t turn away defectors, because that would signal weakness. But you can’t keep rewarding them, because that signals betrayal to your own. It’s a classic political catch-22: hug the enemy and risk alienating the faithful.

Meanwhile, in the Opposition camp, the hemorrhaging continues. Each defection is another crack in the foundation. Morale dips. The whispers grow louder: “Who’s next?”

The PPPC leaders smile. He knows the optics. A steady drip of defections weakens the other side’s credibility. It makes them look divided, disorganised, and desperate. Even if the defectors are nobodies, the perception matters.

Politics, after all, is not about substance. It’s about spectacle.

And so, the poaching continues — relentless, methodical, strategic.

But it comes at a cost. Because the PPPC’s long-serving cadres are not fools. They know the difference between loyalty and convenience. Between comradeship and opportunism. Between building a movement and collecting trophies.

They talk quietly in corners now. They mutter at meetings. They are growing restless.

They know that while the leadership celebrates its “broadening base,” the base itself is beginning to crack. Because the politics of crossover is a politics of contradiction. You can’t build loyalty on borrowed loyalty. You can’t sustain unity on recycled rivalry. And you can’t keep your base happy by feeding them leftovers from the other side’s table.

But for now, the PPPC leader seems content. The defections continue. The headlines roll in. The optics look good. Poaching season is in full swing. And if some comrades feel left out in the cold, well …there’s always next season.

(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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• APNU, Peeping Tom, poaching season, political

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