Dear Editor,
In a letter in SN dated April 13 and captioned, ‘Consensus represents an ideal state,’ Mr Hydar Ally praised the PPP leadership as being very democratic and speaks of persons being able to subordinate their aspirations for the collective good of the organization – mind you not the good of the members, the supporters or the people of Guyana.
I wish he would have spoken of the good of subordinating their authority to the membership, as this would have demonstrated greater democracy and some respect for the membership. There is the form and there is content. The pot holding the milk is still there, but the milk has curdled.
What is so democratic about the leaders refusing to go to the membership in the first place? One of the major and popular candidates, Moses Ngamootoo, stated he wanted the members to decide. Another top candidate Ralph Ramkarran stated in a letter that it’s more democratic for the party to move in this direction.
He agreed with my arguments that the conditions for imposing more centralism at the expense of democracy no longer exist as we are in a peaceful situation and the PPP is in power. I have argued also that the Central Committee (CC) is the highest forum between congresses, and the executive is supposed to carry out the decisions of congress and the CC. I stated clearly that the CC rubber-stamps the decisions of the executive. Here again the executive met so many times and then in a few hours the CC is supposed to make a decision simply after a report from the executive.
Even here there were divergent views, and while Moses and Ralph pointed the way to the members’ involvement, the other candidate who has the support of President Jagdeo et al, Donald Ramotar, is on record along with the President as even rejecting the use of the secret ballot and wanting to impose a show of hands even though when the executive is elected by the CC it is by secret ballot.
The decision for a secret ballot was never announced. It apparently was simply included in the agenda of that fateful CC meting that may very well prove fatal to the PPP. It was included after the process was manipulated in an undemocratic manner. But I will come to that.
Back to the CC whose processes Hydar seems to feel is democratic. Congress, the highest decision-maker gave Frank Anthony very high votes; it gave Moses and Indra Chandarpal, very high votes, and presto! the CC elected none of them to the executive. So tell me about the inclusion of the will of the members.
But coming back to the issue of the consensus candidate, the Executive Committee (Ex-co) met so often and interviewed the candidates. One would expect a report to the CC that spells out the positive, the negative, the experience, the popularity with the members who have to do the work, the popularity with respect to the people and possibly the ability to reach out across the national colour spectrum, but this did not take place.
What happened was that after all the sessions, the last one asked individual members of the Ex-co (almost, if not all of whom, work for the government) to name their choice. No secret ballot even at the Ex-co. Twelve of them said Donald, and Gail and Mr Rohee supported themselves only to flip-flop a few days later, and withdraw.
Do you mean these two after all the discussions at the Ex-co, were not convinced that they should withdraw but did so in a stage-managed CC meeting? That the Ex-co after so many deliberations could not arrive at a consensus candidate and suddenly the stage-managed CC meeting did?
The agenda of the CC meeting was a report from the Ex-co, presentations by the candidates and then a vote by secret ballot. What was planned was no secret. One can imagine what Dr Luncheon would have reported. ‘We met, blew a lot of hot air, but could not arrive at any single most suitable candidate. At the last session, each member was asked to openly state who they were supporting and we got 12 for Donald, 1 for Gail, and 1 for Rohee.’ (I may be a little incorrect but its does not change the scenario.)
After the report it is said that there were discussions. Why, I do not know, as the report would have added nothing new. But 6 persons got up to say that they supported Donald. Why? Did these intelligent people forget that there was to be a secret ballot when they would support their candidates. So I think the arithmetic was this, 12 from a pressure decision at the Ex-co, six at the CC and that is eighteen, so victory. Gail and Mr Rohee suddenly had a common vision. These revolutionaries and fighters against the PNC dictatorship folded. Or acted as planned.
Maybe there was no one other than Ralph who supported his candidacy, or it was the fear that prevented them, but not a single person got up to support him in his hour of need.
Ralph’s back was against the wall. He could have recognized that the open question of support for a candidate was in contravention of his call for a secret ballot and the concomitant fear he realized was present and registered his objections. He could have taken this recognition of fear into consideration and demanded the ballot and so give his supporters who may have been pushed by fear a chance to cast their ballot. Or, he could have condemned the process for the farce it was and wash his hands of what was being spewed in the name of democracy.
It is now left to see if Ralph would sail away into the deep blue sea – sorry, brown – or he will live like a true revolutionary to fight another day. One thing for sure, I cannot see him supporting this group, not after his published criticisms of corruption, among other things.
I cannot close without mentioning another Son of Jagan. Moses! Time will tell if he would come forth and lead the people who support him. He made claims to the fact that Jagan mentioned him as a possible successor. So many see him as that. He will decide whether he would act to ensure Cheddi Jagan’s legacy lives or allow it to be interred with his bones as he and the people of this country witness the blatant betrayal of lean, mean and clean among other aspect of Jagan’s legacy.
There are many in the PPP that are well respected; we are waiting to see if they will stay on the bandwagon in their self interest or stand up to regain the rights of the ordinary man. The people of Guyana, the vast majority of poor across the colour spectrum have to commence appreciating that they occupy a common position and that is economic marginalization. They must look at each other and recognize that they are a force to be dealt with. They must commence to support themselves in unity and address their marginalization with a united front that should exclude the present PPP and PNC elites.
Progressive PPP and PNC leaders have to review their position of support for these undemocratic forces.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Bisessar
