Guyana is now one year out on the Local Government Elections. It is hard to imagine things looking much better for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in reality. Based on the feedback I have received from many on the ground and at least the conclusion from one sample poll that I saw, voters are showing cause that today they prefer the PPP over the People’s National Congress (PNC) dominated coalition by an average of 10 points. The PNC dominated coalition is sampling at an average of 36 per cent today compared to 50 per cent in May 2017. If you are following the statements being made by the PNC appointees in the Government, like the REO of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), who has just declared in the newspapers that “I am in charge of this region, you tell anybody I say so…” then logic dictates that there is only one natural political path – further electoral degradation for the PNC.
In a year’s time, all the local government bodies are up for re-election and the only guarantee for success the PNC dominated coalition seems to have is the urban centres. But even in these urban centres, they are expected to lose significant political ground. But when it comes to the villages, it appears that there will be licks like peas for the PNC dominated coalition.
Notwithstanding this astonishing political recovery of the PPP compared to May 2015, that party still has major political challenges. If a context is given to the biggest problem I see today facing the PPP, it must be deliberated upon from a societal perspective. Today, the nation has some geriatrics that cannot accept the reality that many of them are past their “public office shelf life date”. These septuagenarians continue to cling onto power by marginalising young people. No nation, or for that matter, no organisation can grow unless room is deliberately created for the younger people.
As a retired politician, who still loves observing the local politics, I occasionally read both the PPP’s Weekend Mirror and PNC’s New Nation. I was extremely mortified by an article written by former President Donald Ramotar in the Weekend Mirror of November 11-12, 2017 captioned “The Great October Socialist Revolution reverberates today”. This writer went on to say that “the idea of freedom that sparks the October Revolution is still alive.” Am I being told that the rule of Joseph Stalin was freedom? Are you serious?
With such language from a former President still in the PPP Central Committee, coupled with a PNC dominated Government that worships gerontocracy, the youths of Guyana will be hard-pressed to come in from the cold. The PPP leadership has to take total control of that newspaper and purge it of such unbalanced and unhinged messages. Here we have a nation struggling for its very political survival because of some fixated septuagenarians and octogenarians in Team Granger and the readers of the Mirror have to settle for a second dose of colourful propaganda from the likes of Ramotar. How can a country advance when a former President is given front seat to discharge delusions of grandeur with headlines that preach the Russian October Revolution was associated with freedom when in reality it was not? In a period that requires a closer alliance with the ABC countries, how would such toxic political discourse fly in Washington, DC and London?
Why is more room not being made for the youths to drive the national political conversation in a more purposeful and rational manner? It is imperative that the General Secretary of that party act to ensure that there is more room in that party for the voice of the youths. Why are the youths of Guyana not hearing the views of the under 55-year-old MPs in Parliament from the PPP in the Mirror? And likewise in the New Nation. Why is the nation not being given more of a chance to hear what Dr Vindya Persaud is thinking? And likewise, Collin Croal, Alister Charlie, Adrian Anamayah, Africo Selman, Nigel Dharamlall and Jermaine Figueira?
Noticed, I picked the younger MP’s and the PPP dominates that scene by 5:1. This one fact clarifies that the political environment is statistically advantageous to the PPP in the 2020 elections, at least historically, but until they deal seriously with their own geriatric problem, they will face some serious tailwind from the under 40 population.
Do not get me wrong, I am a strong believer in my elders but when they are mucking up progress like Ramotar and Mr Granger are doing, the younger generation must act swiftly, decisively and methodologically to move them along towards full retirement. The situation is even worse in the PNC, where both their General Secretary and their party leader are both persons steeped in oligarchical gerontocracy. It was these officials who told the youths of the PNC that they have to wait their turn. I am however expecting Jagdeo who is a much younger and more able leader to act and make the Mirror newspaper more reflective of the demographic makeup of the nation. Anything else will be disadvantageous to the PPP.
