With a delegate’s congress now planned for the first quarter of next year, PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo says that any decision to depart from the party’s founding Marxist-Leninist ideology will be a decision for members of that body.
“That is a question for Congress. The General Secretary of a party doesn’t/cannot alter the constitution of a party on his own. It is a question for congress,” Jagdeo said when asked yesterday if plans are on stream for the removal of Marxism-Leninism from the party’s constitution.
“I have my positions and I am not going to, in the public domain, explore this. I will explore it at the appropriate levels of the party. We have consistently been a working class party. We are not wedded to ‘isms’. We want to make sure all of our people make progress, in this country. We want to work for poor people and get into the middle class of society. So any ‘ism’ whatsoever is inconsistent with that, it cannot continue to be the prevailing philosophy of our party,” he added at a press conference at Freedom House.
Long-serving General Secretary of the PPP/C and former President Donald Ramotar had in 2021 told this newspaper that the current ideological leanings of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) are “not extremely clear” but it is definitely no longer Marxist/Leninist. Ramotar, who managed the party’s affairs from 1997 to 2013, had explained that during his tenure, reports to the Central Committee were written through Marxist lens but the policies implemented over that period and those currently being implemented are definitely more social democratic. “We used Marxist methods for the analysis of political and social situations [during my tenure but] I don’t think that is happening at the moment,” he noted.
At the time, he was providing a response to the contention by commentator and former long-serving PPP executive member Ralph Ramkarran that the 73-year-old PPP/C has discarded Marxist-Leninist policies in favour of a more progressive/social democratic political spectrum. Ramkarran contended that the decades-long era of Marxist influence within the PPP has come to an end. In fact, he argued that since 1992 and even more so after the death of party-founder Cheddi Jagan in 1997, the party has promulgated economic development rather than ideology.
“This current political/governmental programme, broadly reflects the ‘Principles and Bases of the Political, Economic and Social System’ of the Constitution, and should define the PPP’s ideology,” he argued. Ramotar had agreed with this assessment. “You must admit that the government has a strong social policy. It strongly promotes education, is very strong on health care although I don’t think we always get value for money. The intention is there. Things like Old-Age pension and other social support programmes are promoted but fundamentally the economy is bourgeois,” he explained.
The former President stressed that many of the government’s policies are strongly supportive of the private sector. “You don’t have to take my word for it, just look at any government statement there is quite a focus on the private sector. It is not what I say, this focus is very clear. There is a strong element of private sector support. They try to balance that with social programmes but we can’t deny the fact that there is a very strong private sector focus, so I’d have to agree with Ramkarran’s assessment,” he concluded.
Ramotar statements on the government’s social policy were echoed by his successor, Clement Rohee, who had also told Stabroek News that the PPP is a people-centred party. “I don’t think the party is Marxist-Leninist,” he said while admitting that he hadn’t been able to figure out an ideology to associate with the party. Rohee however expressed a willingness to embrace the progressive democratic definition since he argued that the party has been pursuing a national democratic path.
‘Not the case’
Yesterday, Ramotar said that his views were distorted by different people to suit their own leanings but that he wants it clear that workers in all sectors should be able to earn enough and have a voice to institute the policy direction of the country. “It is a distortion to say workers are all poor people and that those who promote working class positions want to see them remain that way. That is not the case…the position of the party, is as I had said in 2021, is that it is more socio democratic now,” he said.
Jagdeo said that ideological positions are for “armchair” discussions as government has to pragmatically and practically choose methods and ways to better the living standards of the poor. He said the party’s Congress will have to decide if it wants ideological principles to remain in its constitution. The 32nd Congress is overdue and according to the party’s constitution, it should have been held in 2019. The last PPP/C Congress was held in 2016 and another, as per guidelines of the party’s constitution should have been in 2019 but none has been held since. Jagdeo had in late March said that the Congress was delayed in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Central Committee of 35 persons decides when a Congress will be held. The smaller body which is the Executive Committee, a more operational one, is made up of 15 persons , they make a recommendation to the Central Committee to hold one at such and such a time,” the source explained. The Central Committee also holds the power on deciding the ratio of delegates to members, since it will want to ensure that all members are properly represented while safeguarding against overcrowding.
“That decision is an administrative one. The practice is that at the representation of the Congress, because it’s really a delegate’s Congress, so there would be one delegate to say, for example, every three financial members, as I have explained to you. We choose a location and all the delegates will have to get housing and so on. The capacity of the auditorium, most times it is held at a school, is also a factor because you have to look at safety and overcrowding. While the party wants to have every member at the Congress, it is almost impossible for this to happen because the party membership covers the entire country,” an official explained.
At the party’s last Congress, held in Essequibo from December 17 to 19, 2016, Jagdeo was elected General Secretary of the party by secret ballot.
