The ruling PPP is entering a new phase of its history where its electoral majority cannot be sustained because of longevity in office and demographic changes, former PPP stalwart Ralph Ramkarran says even as he noted that the party is misreading the mood of the electorate.
“The Guyanese people are tired of the political stalemate. They are frustrated at the failure of the main political parties to cooperate to get things done. The economy is not performing for them. Inequality is increasing and the conditions for the working people and the poor remain stagnant. Opportunities for young people continue to be limited. Guyanese want to look forward to a better life, not backward to a past life,” Ramkarran wrote in his latest column in the Sunday Stabroek. He said that the PPP is misreading the mood of the electorate.
According to Ramkarran, a winning agenda for the PPP in these circumstances and a new and innovative message which would grasp the imagination of the public, would be a message of political change – ‘a way forward’ to end the political stalemate and instability which has historically retarded Guyana’s economic, social and political progress. The people of Guyana will react positively to such a message, he said.
The former Speaker of the National Assembly recalled the PPP’s programme for the 1992 elections and said that after 22 years in office, the programme for the next elections would be based on the slogan ‘More of the Same.’ This would mean the same leaders, the same policies, the same claims to victimhood by the PNC, the Americans and the ‘opposition press’ and the same 28 years, Ramkarran asserted.
He said that President Donald Ramotar and the leadership of the PPP know that ethnic voting patterns would ensure the retention of its core support whatever its policies. “They also know that the PPP is entering a new phase of its history where its electoral majority cannot be sustained because of longevity in office and demographic changes,” he declared.
According to Ramkarran, Ramotar holds the “pen of history” in his hands. “He can write that history by bringing to realization the destiny of the PPP. Charted by its early leaders, it was a party founded on the principle of national unity. It later became a dedicated advocate for a political solution based on ‘winner does not take all’ which, if implemented, will transform the nature of our politics and our political system, bring to realization the dream of Cheddi Jagan and alter the course of Guyana’s history. President Ramotar supported these positions of the PPP throughout the 30+ years since they were advanced and constantly repeated,” Ramkarran wrote.
He said that proposals for constitutional reform in this election campaign, showing ‘The Way Forward,’ to actualize ‘winner does not take all,’ will inspire and motivate the people of Guyana including the youth.
“President Ramotar should not support such a programme to make history, but because it is the right thing to do and will, in any event, be forced by inevitable circumstances on a future leader. But if he seizes the time and opportunity now, ripe as they are, by a willing and voluntary act, he will write himself into Guyana’s history as a transformative and visionary leader, occupying a place of honour equal to that of our greatest heroes. He will leave an untarnished legacy that will survive for generations to come,” Ramkarran wrote.
