We enter a new year with a new President though it has to be said that that is where the newness stops. In most other respects it’s same old, same old. Most of the Ministers keep their jobs though a few have been shifted around. The PPP/C have lost their majority in the National Assembly though no one is certain whether the opposition is really going to make the difference count. The APNU and the AFC has already had their first bout of political cat-sparring over who gets the Speaker’s job and APNU has had its own internal headaches over who goes to Parliament.
Those are just a few things to ponder early in the new year. Here’s a few more:
* Will Odinga Lumumba be made to face the courts for his alleged Elections Day assault of a GECOM official. It doesn’t seem that the former President’s loquacious and controversial Adviser has suffered any loss of favour since the incident. Note that he has been promptly returned to the National Assembly. President Ramotar may wish to consider, however, that under his predecessor there were quite a few instances of high officials literally flexing their muscles and throwing their weight around. This is probably as good a time as any for President Ramotar to set out his stall – so to speak – making the point that bullying defenceless people does not fall under the portfolio of any of his officials.
* Has there been a shakeup in the security detail for the new President? Apart from the fact that President Ramotar might wish to have some personal say in who protects him now that he is running things, it is no secret that BJ’s protectors did not exactly cover themselves in glory, some of them having been caught moonlighting as enforcers for a private paymaster. Incidentally, whatever became of the promised internal investigation into that matter?
* Will the PPP/C administration continue to ‘run with’ Kwame McCoy as one of its key PR men? Apart from having no known track record as an image-maker, one is hard-pressed to determine just how Kwame has made any sort of positive impact on the image of the administration. If anything he has done nothing but attract unwholesome controversy and create the impression that the PPP favours officials who throw their weight around. Surely it can’t be all that hard to find someone to sit beside Roger Luncheon and determine who asks what questions at his press conferences?
*Whatever happened to Prem Misir? Little was heard of him during the elections campaign and even less since Mr. Jagdeo sung his swan song. One might have thought that there may have been something for him in the new setup. After all wasn’t he one of the more strident and aggressive (even if frequently unpalatable) defenders of the Jagdeo regime?
*When will Robert Corbin stop being Leader of the PNCR? There is now no question that his political star has pitched and that there is nothing he can do either to restore or re-invent himself or the PNC for that matter. Mr. Corbin also appears to have run out of political stamina even though we hear that he played a significant role in determining which PNC functionaries ‘made’ the National Assembly on the APNU ticket. Both the PPP and the PNC have a tradition of leaders who remain in office until they are ready for that journey to The Great Beyond. Mr. Corbin would do well to break with that tradition.
*Will President Ramotar hold on to the position of General Secretary of the PPP? Might that not appear at odds with his presidential obligation to serve the whole of Guyana? On the other hand he might reason that leadership at the party level is more than a little thin on the ground and that he would do well to hang around for while yet to ensure that those party comrades who did not favour his being given the presidential candidature do not use the Party machinery to undermine his political base.
*When will Hamilton Green fade out of the public limelight. Surely half a century of more in the political limelight including several ministerial positions, the prime ministership and wearing the Mayor’s chain for what sometimes seems like forever is enough of a political career for one lifetime. After all, it’s not as if Hammie gets anything remotely resembling a good grade for running the City……..and even if it appears that he has been blessed with good health to go along with his longevity there comes a time when enough is enough and it’s time to pack it in.
*Will Bharrat Jagdeo eventually be named to some official position in the Ramotar administration. The betting – for now, at least – appears to be against that but you never know. Recall that during the elections campaign the new President did say time and again that his administration would make use of BJ’s experience and after all there is really nothing wrong with Mr. Ramotar returning the favour of making Bharrat a presidential adviser. If Reepu can advise the President then, surely, so can Bharrat. The other thing about giving Bharrat a title, an office and a secretary is that at least the nation will know just what he’s up to apart from counting his pension. The man is awfully quiet these days?
*Will APNU and the AFC live up to expectations as a ‘minority/majority’ in the National Assembly? After the brouhaha over who gets the Speaker’s job no-one seems to be putting their money on it. There’s talk about whether the APNU coalition might not be left high and dry by an AFC that made it clear prior to November 28 that it was not prepared to enter into a coalition with anything resembling the PNC. It transpires that a coalition of sorts is just what we have anyway. Most people agree that the real significance of the November 28 poll has been the historic loss of its parliamentary majority by the governing party. It now seems that if parliament is to make any sense APNU and the AFC must find some sort of modus vivendi. Interestingly, now there are those who think that the presence of Ramjattan and Trotman at the helm of the AFC is itself a signal that old politics may be prevailing. Let’s face it although the two men emerged as the young turks from the PPP and the PNC who sought to break the old political goblet, some cynics continue to see them both as ‘sleepers’ for their old parties and there has been a lot of talk as to which of them really holds the whip hand in the AFC. We hear, for example, that not all of the AFC’s supporters are cock-a-hoop over the idea of Moses being the Speaker of the National Assembly. He may have been a political operator for more years than most but as far as those AFC supporters are concerned he is still a Johnny-Come-Lately. Of course, what is troubling many people is that with so many other fish to fry the current brouhaha over who gets the Speaker’s job is fast becoming a counterproductive irritant.
*What sort of a politician will David Granger make? He appeared to handle Mr. Jagdeo’s elections-time onslaught pretty well though there are those who say that he did not seem to be able to muster enough oomph at the hustings during the campaign. Granger has a reputation as a soldier-turned-academic and while he certainly surrounded himself with several army buddies in his bid to become President, he is really an unknown quantity as far as the political battlefield is concerned. People will be looking to see just what sort of style he takes to the National Assembly bearing in mind that there have been promises of a much more combative Parliament this time around.
Now there are quite a few other things that people must be pondering in the new year but we must leave some of those for another time…..mustn’t we?