Incident at Cove and John

During the May Day march, at the junction of Cummings and Regent Streets, one of the UG workers walking next to me showed me three young ladies standing on the pavement. For some reason, they were not in the GAWU contingent (they were wearing red T-shirts with the GAWU emblem). He said he wished they were not from GAWU because he wanted to engage the pretty one in the middle. I suggested that he approach the young woman because her GAWU affiliation does not mean that she is a PPP supporter. The conceptual problem Guyanese have with the East Indian population is that we believe Indians by nature are PPP supporters. It is true that Indians have lost the vibrancy they once had when they were vocal in denouncing the PNC Government. It is true that they have become silent on bad government now that the PPP is in power. But what we overlooked is that twenty years has been a long time and in that period, Indians have seen what they would never have believed – the PPP is a nasty group that has committed unspeakable crimes. It is not sociologically valid to posit the theory that Indians are still crude, selfish supporters of the PPP. Yes, they may remain suspicious of the PNC. Yes, they may fall victim to PPP propaganda that African Guyanese are bent on using violence. But that is far as it goes. Of course they do not want to picket and demonstrate against the PPP’s atrocities, but that should not be taken as an indication of acceptance. The Indian population of this country is no longer enamoured of the PPP. The reason is because the PPP cannot stop the things that make Indians scorn them, one of which is corruption. Corruption has undone the PPP and will cause the PPP to lose power, either in a power struggle with the opposition or in an electoral contest. The PPP has reached the stage where it has become a prisoner of the corruption cancer. An incident in Cove and John, two weeks ago, tells the story of doomed power. There was an internal PPP meeting at which two high level leaders presided. I am not going to name them because these people are barefaced enough to sue for libel claiming they were never at such a meeting. Member after member brought up the disease of corruption in the government among PPP leaders. Some demanded Cabinet changes. It would appear that these tiny confabulations are for testing of the snap poll waters. The anger and angst displayed by party activists at these meetings will not by internalized by the PPP kingdom, because the kingdom is psychologically incapable of understanding that they are mortal humans with failings. The PPP leadership has long passed the stage where they saw themselves as people who made mistakes. You just have to listen to one PPP king – Roger Luncheon – and you know that the PPP is invincible, omnipresent and omnipotent. You just have to listen to Donald Ramotar and you know the PPP is so far removed from reality that Luncheon, Ramotar and the rest of the empire live in another world and not in Guyana. The PPP empire will continue to hold these discussion forums so activists can vent their feelings, but it is doubtful the war room can appease them, because the war room itself is the source of corruption.

Promises to correct bad behaviour in government were made at the Cove and John rendezvous, but they will never be kept, because the presiding officers at that meeting are as corrupt as those that they have agreed to investigate. They cannot probe their colleagues, because they have no moral ground to stand on. The cabal of conspiracy involves the entire empire. After the little forum was over, one of the attendees told his friends of two boats that are involved in fuel smuggling and named the queen (read between the lines) who controls the operation. Can she cite any of her colleagues for corruption? What is the relevance of the Cove and John meeting to my opening theory that Indians must no longer be seen as people who will keep faith with the PPP? The contents of these discussions are never kept secret. The very activists that attend them heap scorn on those that are sent by the kingdom to address them, and reveal to people like this columnist, the  false promises they get. A snap poll may very well be the end of the kingdom. The Guyanese monarchy reminds one so much of the Third Reich and the psychological diseases of that empire.