Freddie Kissoon
The succession on a silver platter
Kaieteur News, 10 August 2007
The Kaieteur News columnist, Peeping Tom made the following point last
Sunday when he wrote about the nastiness of the Forestry Commission
Bill in the name of the Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud; “Mr.
Persaud is very much seen as the Presidential candidate-in-waiting of
the PPP. If he hopes to enhance his public appeal, he should recall
this obnoxious and rotten piece of legislation….”
The writer of that Sunday viewpoint ought to know better. First, the
authoritarian instinct inheres in PPP leaders. What fire is to a
cigarette a hardened attitude is to PPP leaders.
I was having a snack last Monday at that historic site – Shanta's at
Camp and New Market Streets. This fellow came up and introduced
himself. He told me he is the brother of an old PPP stalwart M.Z. Ali
that I knew a long time ago and who worked closely with my late sister,
Gwennie in the PPP many moons ago.
If he is M.Z. Ali's brother then he is the uncle of rising PPP star
Irfan Ali, who is the youngest member of the National Assembly
He told me he became alienated from the PPP after he re-migrated to
Guyana in the 90s and his home on the West Coast is now the West Coast
head office of the Alliance for Change. As we chatted, he related to me
hidden dimensions of PPP history that we academics should write about.
I found this man an ocean of information about the dark side of the PPP
and I promise to dialogue with him when next I am on the West Coast
(which should be next week). He related to me the lack of emotions and
sentiments he found in PPP leaders, especially, according to him, Mrs.
Jagan.
I explained to him that such a personality make-up stems from a
communist character. Communism is an ideology that gives no recognition
to humanism, emotions, sentiments and aesthetic needs. Communist people
are cold people.
This explains why they display no emotions whatsoever when they give
orders to execute even their own relatives for what they consider
anti-party activities.
It is no coincidence that of the three worst mass murderers of history,
two were die-hard communist, Stalin of Russia and Pol Pot of Cambodia.
The killing of people comes easily to communist leaders because they
attach no sentiments to history, tradition and friendship. Fidel Castro
has absolutely no emotional edifice in him. He would order your
execution while feasting on a barbecue.
I went on to explain to Mr. Ali the difference I found between PNC
leaders when they were in Government and the present PPP rulers. It was
the possession of emotions and sentiments in the former which is sadly
lacking in the latter.
Most, if not all, PNC leaders but particularly Forbes Burnham, Ptolemy
Reid and Desmond Hoyte were people who had a friendly side to them and
you could have appealed to the inner sentiments in them. Burnham was a
man that would dismiss you from your post but you would get the job
back the next day.
If your mom goes to him, Burnham would listen, offer her something to
drink then tell your mother while laughing; “if your son steal again I
will put him to cut grass at Congress Place till he becomes an old
man.”
Ptolemy Reid was the same but it was Desmond Hoyte whose emotions you
could have manipulated. Hoyte had a short fuse but he had a long heart.
This is the essential difference between PNC and PPP leaders.
The PPP bigwigs get more and more agitated when the dislike for them
grows nationally. But these people are so myopic that they cannot see
that their chauvinism and cruelty drive the nation away from them. And
they continue to refuse to see that all it takes is a moment of
reaching out and that act can launch a thousand ships.
So Peeping Tom has to understand that Robert Persaud grew up in a party
that has no knowledge of what public appeal means. The concept of
public appeal is a term that was born in liberal democracy where
leaders vie with each other for the nation's support.
If you study the present race in the Democratic Party for the
nomination to be the presidential candidate then here is where you see
a desperate fight among the candidates to acquire public appeal.
Cheddi Jagan had no use for the concept. He was assured of Indian
support (which he was satisfied with, so he told WPA leaders that they
must organize among African Guyanese and his party will cater for the
needs of the East Indian villages).
Public appeal is like another planet to PPP leaders. At congress time,
whoever Cheddi Jagan wanted to send up the ladder of the party, he
rigged the voting to make sure that happened. Leaders grew big in the
PPP not because they worked for public appeal but because Cheddi Jagan
invented them.
Moses Nagamootoo told me that he was still in the leadership of the
party but away in Barbados when he heard the news that Bharrat Jagdeo
was made presidential successor to Janet Jagan. He told me he was never
contacted for an opinion.
There was no intensive consultation among party groups. No special
congress was called. A cabal in Freedom House and not the membership of
the PPP decided who would become the President of Guyana. One looks
forward to a book by Moses Nagamootoo, as he gets older, about these
fantastic intrigues that pervaded the life of the PPP.
Secondly, and as a spin-off from this factor, if Robert Persaud will be
chosen the way Bharrat Jagdeo was selected (that is, without a
congressional competition for delegates' votes which is what Vincent
Alexander wanted in the PNC two weeks ago), then the effort to win
public appeal does not come into the equation.
This explains why PPP leaders who reach the pinnacle of their careers
behave with so much haughtiness. They do not understand that it is
better to be loved than feared.
So they penetrate the society from the border with Suriname to the
border with Venezuela and they couldn't be bothered with procuring the
embrace of the masses. Maybe like Peter D'Aguiar, they think the masses
are asses.
Unlike what Peeping Tom thinks about the authoritarian nature of the
Guyana Forestry Commission Bill, he is naïve to think that the bill's
rotten intentions (rotten, the word used by Peeping Tom) will prick the
conscience of Mr. Persaud.
Suppose the legislation was drafted at the request of Mr. Persaud
himself?
The tragic story of this nation will continue to play out in 2011 when
the Freedom House cabal will select its presidential candidate. One
hopes that there is still a Guyana by then. I am not afraid to write
about that opinion just as some powerful people are not afraid to rule
Guyana unjustly.
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