Dear Editor,
I don’t know if it’s deliberate but the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic seems to be engaged in the strange electioneering strategy of going between complete provocative inanity as represented by Bharrat Jagdeo and Clement Rohee, and the mind numbing banality as represented by Elisabeth Harper and Donald Ramotar – Operation Shock and Yawn, if you will.
And in an election that is going to be primarily decided by the vote, no young person of any standing or independent professional achievement has directly endorsed or expressed even indirect support for the PPP – no young businessperson, academic, economist, doctor, lawyer, journalist, musician or writer. There is no one of distinction in the PYO, not even the qualified children of PPP leadership.
This is remarkable for a political hegemony twenty-three years in power, and one which claims some of sort of intellectual superiority in the management of public affairs. It’s embarrassing and I hope on Nomination Day the PPP has a few surprises for us, although it would be a virtually impossible task for any professional to credibly represent the PPP on policy. An intellectually bankrupt Freedom House in government is as we have come to see a clear and present danger; however, it also doesn’t do the democratic process any good if we have an intellectually bankrupt and anachronistic PPP in political opposition.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson