Four years ago, Jai Narine Singh Jr, well known as Don Singh, was feverishly battling on social media to remove the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) from government but today he is part of the Civic fold, part of the “bridge” between the rigidly structured and controlled PPP and civil society.
That is, at least, how he tells his story.
Speaking with Sunday Stabroek, Singh explained that after years as a citizen activist, he decided to step into formal politics to make sure his ideas for development are a formal part of government policy.
“My ideas are to help Guyanese and I can’t do that from the outside. I’m looking at it from a positive frame. I mean (PPP General Secretary Bharrat) Jagdeo could kick me to the curb after but I have to try,” he said.
The idea that he might be “kicked” out by the party after the March 2020 elections is firmly planted in Singh’s mind and reinforced daily by “well-wishers” who write him, comment on his social media posts and deliver well-meaning text messages.
It is so firmly planted that he repeats it no less than six times during a 20-minute interview.
“I might fail spectacularly but if I succeed fractionally that’s good enough for me,” he said almost pensively.
He explained that in 2015, he would’ve never considered being associated with the PPP even though his father was a former General Secretary of both that party and of the People’s National Congress. At that time, his main goal was getting rid of a party which had not been good for Guyana so much so that he put little thought into what would replace them.
“I don’t think we looked at what APNU+AFC would’ve done if they won. We were just dead set against the PPP. Getting rid of them was our goal; they were too arrogant and lofty and the allegations of corruption were too many,” he shared.
‘Fair play’
Singh has, over the last few years, become a local celebrity as a leading member of the mass-based Movement Against Parking Meters.
For months, he and hundreds of likeminded individuals picketed City Hall to have the metered parking project revoked and last year, he launched a failed bid to win a seat in the local government elections as an independent candidate. He lost that seat to current Mayor Ubraj Narine.
Most recently, the Movement against Parking Meters became the Mass Action People’s Movement (MAPM) as they broadened their focus with the aim of becoming “a civil society watchdog.”
The resignation of President David Granger and his Cabinet following the passage of a no-confidence motion on December 21 last year became their raison d’etre.
Singh told Stabroek News it was the government’s handling of this issue, and specifically its defiance of the Constitution that led him to the PPP.
“If, in January, they had said, ‘we will hit the ground running, hold elections and fight this thing at the polls,’ I would’ve been with them. I would’ve been with them. I couldn’t accept the delays and prevarication…. It’s fair play that’s all I want. You can’t defy the Constitution,” he stressed.
The sense of betrayal is clear in his voice as well as his refrain especially since he can’t be sure that the PPP has changed from being the party he worked so hard to remove from government.
So far, Singh is taking the chance to possibly be the change he wants to see and according to him, along the way, he and his ideas have been treated with respect.
“I’ve met the [PPP] Presidential Candidate [Irfaan Alli] and he’s listened to my ideas. I don’t get the impression they are being facetious. What they have said is ‘develop your ideas, put them in writing and we will add them to the manifesto,’” Singh related.
He noted that PPP members as well as members of the Civic component, with whom he has engaged, have assured him that once his ideas are in the manifesto, he doesn’t have to worry about implementation.
“At that point, they become a promise to the people and not to the Civic,” he shared.
The ideas he is so keen to pilot related directly to poverty alleviation through structured skills training.
“I want to use our playgrounds or recreations space for skills training. I want to turn them into hubs for apprenticeships and [possibly] offer a stipend for participants; rather than having them come to the technical schools when they might not be able to sustain that attendance, we go to them. I want to get you there, teach you a sport and a technical skill that you can use to develop a career. I want to make it as broad-based as possible. Teach plumbing and welding and weaving. You can’t get people out of poverty by giving them handouts but you can give them skills,” he explained.
Behind the scenes
While there has been no formal feasibility study on how this could be achieved, Singh said that many from the MAPM have expressed willingness to share their ideas and offer behind-the-scenes support but are unwilling to be publicly affiliated with a political party.
“They talk about possible victimisation and needing to keep jobs and so on but it seems that they are very keen to have someone listen to the ideas. [To have] anybody who will listen to them,” he shared.
For now, that anybody is the PPP and its Civic component, which Singh described as a loosely combined appendage, a bridge between the party and civil society.
“There is no leader, there is no hierarchy, there’s no set steps. We just come together and we bring the ideas we want to see implemented,” he noted, while adding that his intention is not to become a career politician but to give five years to a process.
“Maybe I’m naïve but I have to try for myself, for my child and for my country. If I fail to try, that would be worse,” he stressed adding that his thoughts and passion are the same as when he was with MAPM.
“I haven’t suddenly become an ogre with a red shirt,” he joked.
Asked his opinion on the smaller parties being formed, Singh said “the more the merrier” even as he lamented that many might not make it to nomination day because of lack of public support.
