Dear Editor,
Faced with a massive turnout of thousands of supporters at the APNU+AFC election launch rally on Friday evening at the Jubilee Park in Georgetown, the opposition PPP/C in desperation announced on the said evening their Prime ministerial Candidate. Former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Chief of Staff, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips was named as the running mate for Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali in the upcoming General and Regional Elections scheduled for March 02, 2020.
What is the political significance of the decision to choose Mark Phillips? The nation was told that the other contenders for the PM post were Juan Edghill and UG lecturer Hugh Todd. Since all the contenders are Africans it is clear that one of the objectives was to have an African running mate for Irfaan Ali. But to what end? Jagdeo and the PPP/C know that in electoral terms Mark Phillips will bring no significant votes – African or otherwise. So their decision is not intended to influence the numbers in the sense of attracting non-PPP voters to the party election bid. The real political reason for the Brigadier (ret’d) on the ticket is to give psychological comfort to the party supporters that in the top leadership of the party is a military man to match Granger and the APNU+AFC. A demonstration to the PPP/C support base that they are not without military assets. Jagdeo is hoping that by making Phillips the prime ministerial candidate he can neutralise the growing alienation among party supporters and the Jaganite faction of the party who are concerned that he is leading them into defeat at the upcoming elections. By showing that he has military assets will force his detractors to give him the benefit of the doubt. A keen political observer would not have failed to recognise the absence of members of the Jaganite faction from a prominent role at the Kitty rally.
It is timely to revisit Jagdeo and the PPP/C propaganda in the 2011 General and Regional Elections. They viciously accused the APNU of taking the country down a Latin American path of military dictatorship because David Granger was the APNU Presidential Candidate. For them, ex-military officers entering politics was a retroactive development in the country political culture. This line of argument by the PPP/C had intensified beyond reason in the 2015 elections campaign.
It is not surprising, bearing in mind that Jagdeo’s and the PPP/C’s politics are driven by calculated opportunism, their newfound love for former military officers’ involvement in politics will now be baptised as a strategic move and be justified. Politically, a party is entitled to adjustments in its tactics and strategy, but given the demonization of Granger and the coalition for having ex-military officers in politics, the PPP/C leadership owes the nation an explanation for its changed position. Too often, politicians treat the nation with contempt on important national issues offering no self-criticism or reasons to justify their change in policy.
At the Kitty Rally neither Jagdeo nor Irfaan Ali addressed this change of heart on ex-military officers’ involvement in politics. And the Brigadier justified his decision to be involved as a desire to serve the nation. Is this not the same reason that was given by Granger and other ex-military officers, that the PPP/C rejected and deemed heinous?
I end by saying that the nation will be well-advised not to take seriously promises made by Jagdeo and the PPP/C in this election campaign since with Jagdeo at the helm of the party nothing is written in stone.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye
