Dear Editor,
I have captioned my discourse with you today “The Party and The People” for a specific reason. We are going to take a close examination of these two important entities in the Guyana context. Firstly, in the British Commonwealth it is verified, unassailable, documented proof that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is a party that has never lost an election. This is a phenomenon that the ABC Countries cannot fathom nor would the People’s National Congress come to accept.
For this very same reason, election rigging was allowed to flourish; that is to keep that party, the ‘people’s party’ out of power. Come to think of it, that theory did work because in the last elections we were told that the PPP/Civic lost that election by a mere one seat. Well, I am asking the powers that be to prove it? Just prove that anomaly to us! Truth is making that so called proclamation proof, they do that and we would most graciously accept. But, lest I be bogged down into a sidebar to explain all the shameful details of that sordid, rigging arrangement, let me move on with the discussion at hand.
The party … the people, what has made for the success of the two over the years? The answer is the process of choosing a leader to lead the party. That process is solid and certain, used for decades whenever that party goes into choosing mode. From its Founder Leader, Dr Cheddi Jagan, every leader thereafter has had to go through that highly respected road. You must fulfil those criteria with high marks before you can be selected.
The second, and I would brand it the most crucial part of it all, is that the person who will be chosen must be a people person, because ultimately they are the ones who would be called upon to vote you into office and into the seat of power. The final decision lies with the people you would be asked to lead so that great step into the future is of paramount importance. The people must feel safe, secure and confident in their leadership and herein lies the strength of the PPP’s ‘Leadership, People Power!’
Education, charm and charisma, while they are great assets for anyone these are never the lone pillars on which the party stands. You must unveil your love and ability to lead people in the good times and in the bad, in their happiness and in their sorrows, even when they become cold and indifferent to you. Leadership has euphoric highs while at the same time you must face up to its lonely, crushingly hard and demeaning lows. As a leader you must be prepared for these realities.
So, the latest hype within, and in a pronounced way, without the party as to who should become leader is firing up as we come to that crucial point.
The enthusiasm is great because every single one of them in the PPP has been blessed with those noble characteristics of leadership; every last one of them.
However, they cannot all be the head only one person will get that approval nod. We, in due time, would see that leader and he or she would lead us successfully into the next phase.
The people of this country longs for fit and proper leadership. The people of this country eagerly awaits the completion of the process in the PPP’s camp of that individual who would lead us back into the beaten path of peace development and progress.
As that process takes shape we can take heart that a better day will come soon.
Respectfully,
Neil Adams
