Dear Editor,
With an election less than two years away and with a shocking lack of quality candidates, it is no wonder political dinosaurs like Messrs Ramkarran, Nagamootoo and Ramotar are emerging in the press as possible PPP leadership candidates, and President Jagdeo is beating the unconstitutional third-term drum. The so-called anointed few who were supposedly being groomed, most notably Robert Persaud, have demonstrated palpable incapacity for big picture thinking, handling and execution. Their leadership skills are poor and cannot resonate with a country slipping into a morass of crime and with a support base disgusted with runaway corruption and ivory tower insulation. Further, the old guard continues to feature in the PPP leadership debate largely because some egos from the younger contingent have ripened beyond control and there is a battle between the old guard and new guard for control of the party. The problem is that neither
group possesses charismatic and dynamic leadership capable of charting new frontiers. Neither group has proven anything of substance to definitively take the helm. The PPP and the entire country is in a leadership nightmare and knows it. The focus is on the PPP because it stands the best chance to win the next election – unless racial voting disappears into thin air in Guyana – and its leadership selections are most critical to the future of this nation.
A telling moral and ethical disintegration has occurred within the PPP that it cannot solve internally with its current dispute resolution mechanism without taking a bold plunge and casting its net further afield to discover new leadership potential. The philosophy of lengthy service before promotion, selection and appointment has to be radicalized to effect transformative change to the organization. Before the internal strife and battle for supremacy consumes the party, those with the reins of power must seize the future and implement change that will lead to the required internal cleansing and external image restoration the party desperately seeks.
It is the only viable course the old guard with no credible chance of power but still in control of the party has to reshape the party. The ascendancy of any flawed younger cadre of the party without the ability to lead will lead to the proliferation of an already broken culture of flawed leadership and corruption-myopia throughout the entire system.
This is why it is vital to advance the gaze further afield. The party needs to actively seek quality individuals who possess a different moral and ethical fibre and the fearlessness to rock the boat and institute change. This is where the party has to possess the selflessness and ultimate dedication to nation first and foremost, to recognize and search for new talent. In the United States of America, a young, junior African-American senator from Illinois with no prior political acclaim but moral rectitude, willingness to change and capability to foster hope became the President of the United States of America. America is already powerful, wealthy and the homeland of hundreds of thousands of Guyanese who fled this country because of flawed leadership leading to a myriad of problems.
The closeted truth is that the best, brightest and least morally and ethically compromised candidates to lead Guyana have fled Guyana or are the children of those who fled Guyana. There is nothing wrong in bringing them back en masse when they are young, bright, devoid of political dogmatism and ready to serve and transform for the greater good. Instead of clamouring in the press to self-aggrandize their political ambitions, men who are in the twilight of their years like Ramkarran and Ramotar should instead invest their energies in finding new, bold and inspiring leadership capable of changing the moral compass of their own party and of the country.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Maxwell
