Several recent high-profile defections from the AFC to APNU are ominous signs for the PPP, according to columnist Ralph Ramkarran.
Ramkarran, writing on political defections, said that the departures from Alliance For Change (AFC) are not merely opportunistic shifts but principled departures to A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which gains from the process.
In recent weeks several AFC members have crossed to APNU including well-known overseas-based economist Tarron Khemraj. The departures have been linked to the controversy over the AFC’s stance on the Amaila project and internal issues. Another member, Berbice lawyer Charrandass Persaud also recently announced his departure.
Ramkarran, who quit the PPP last year after nearly 50 years with the party, said while the defections from the AFC have been traumatic it faced other challenges. The defections, he argued, were more a problem for the ruling PPP/C.
“The defections from the AFC must have been traumatic for that party. It was for the PPP every time over two or more decades. But the AFC faces greater challenges as a third party. Its principal tasks are to define itself, maintain a multi-ethnic appeal in a situation of rigid ethnic voting patterns and devise a strategy to deal with a situation where it is likely that the PPP will remain the largest political party. For an opposition political party in Guyana, it has to become accustomed to defections, but these will not be its biggest challenges.
“For the PPP the defections from the AFC to APNU are ominous signs. They are not shifts towards the PPP but principled departures to APNU which gains from them and is the winner. For this reason the PPP has nothing to shout about but a great deal of work to do so as to be seen as the party of choice for youth and intellectuals, groups which have been inclining towards the AFC”, Ramkarran, a former two-term Speaker of the National Assembly, said.
Addressing the question of defections, Ramkarran praised former PPP/C Minister Henry Jeffrey for the principled position he took when he had differences with the PNC, with which he also had a longstanding relationship before joining the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government in 1992.
Noting that political defections in Guyana have a long and sordid history, Ramkaran said Jeffrey’s case was a “rare exception”.
“Faced with the choice between academic integrity and dishonesty in the mid-1980s when he (Jeffrey) was writing a book, Guyana, while preparing his doctoral thesis in the UK, he chose the high road. He sat on the executive of the PNC but instead of defending electoral malpractice, he took the position that the PNC had been guilty of electoral fraud. He was dismissed from his job as principal at Kuru Kuru Cooperative College and for several years after his return to Guyana he could not find employment at UG.
“Although tied to the PNC during the 1970s and 1980s, he had always exercised an independent political mind. He regularly visited the Michael Forde Bookshop, then something of a mini, pro PPP, intellectual hang-out, now a shadow of its former self, and engaged in polemics while many feared even travelling through that part of Robb Street where Freedom House is located.
“He displayed the Mirror at Kuru Kuru Cooperative College. He employed me as a part-time lecturer. During much of this time he was known to some in the PPP leadership and engaged with them from time to time. No PNC activist, sympathizer or state employee dared to do anything similar, but Dr Jeffrey’s actions were never called into question by his political superiors. Upon his return to Guyana after completing his doctoral studies, his engagements with Dr Jagan intensified and there began his journey with the PPP and later the PPP/Civic. He has criticized the PNC but has never joined in its demonization for the purpose of gaining favour in the PPP/Civic”, Ramkarran wrote.