There is no power struggle within the People’s Progressive Party. That party has one leader and one owner; both are one and the same person. The PPP is led by and owned by Bharrat Jagdeo. He is in full command of the PPP. He has been in command for many years now.
Stabroek News is imagining conspiracies where none exist. It is reporting on a power struggle within the PPP. That is a figment of someone’s imagination. There is no threat to Jagdeo’s powerbase. He is the supreme leader of the PPP. He is so powerful that at one stage he could have afforded the luxury of describing the matriarch of the PPP and one of its founder leaders, Mrs. Janet Jagan, as a private citizen.Many before him had, to their detriment, been sent into political exile for lesser indiscretions towards Mrs. Jagan. He said it because he knew that there was nothing standing in his way within the PPP and within the PPPC government at the time.
Jagdeo owns the PPP. He is the throne and the only power behind the throne.
Things in the other political camps are different. Over at Congress Place there is an elected leader who is now President of Guyana. But everyone knows that if Uncle Joe decides to challenge for leadership he will win it easily. Uncle Joe has the support to win the leadership of the PNCR whenever and if ever he pleases.
I will tell you another secret. If Uncle Robert decides to return, there is nothing standing in the way of him retaking the leadership of the party.
The PNC and the PPP are two sides of the same pod. Do not worry about party democracy. That is for the American and British political systems. In Guyana, leaders are like matriarchs and patriarchs. They dominate their political parties for a very long time.The General Secretary of the PPP has long been considered its de facto leader. That was, of course, before Jagdeo took control of the party. Congress will have no effect on the changes in the leadership of the party. There will be no challenge to Jagdeo’s leadership. He is too powerful a leader. He is secure in the knowledge that there are not many persons willing to challenge him.
The AFC is in a mess. This is where the major squabble is. The party has a leader but is being challenged all around. There are others waiting in the wing to take over. They are rebelling against the party and its leader. They are challenging positions that the leaders has taken within the government and this is embarrassing and catching the leadership off guard.There are political daggers being pulled within the AFC. There are ambitious people within the AFC some of whom may have already crossed over to APNU.There is an expectation that come the next election, the AFC is likely to go with a different leader into the coalition government. There are persons lining up for that position.There are also persons within the AFC who are interested in becoming the next Prime Minister.
They might all be surprised. Burnham dumped his coalition partner in the run-up to the 1968 elections. The present government is one year in office.Everything that it has done, including the unnecessary fight with Venezuela, is a rerun of Burnham’s early years. Burnhamites are all over the government these days and Burnham’s policies are being revised and repackaged.Things are being renamed after insignificant ministers in the Burnham cabinet. The Ogle Airport was renamed after a man who has nothing to show for his times in government. What did he ever do as a Minister to warrant an airport being named after him? Did he build any airport or buy any plane? He was not even good enough to be retained after 1968 when Burnham rigged his way to power. Yet, an airport is named after him.
The coalition will hold for as long as it takes to ensure that the PNCR holds power. Once the PNC is convinced that it no longer needs the AFC, it will dump that party faster than it dumped the Venezuelan rice market.The real power struggle is taking place within the AFC is response to jockeying for positions to see who should be the one to dissolve the AFC into the PNCR.
And guess what? The WPA is seeing opportunities for itself and is attempting to exploit the disunity within the AFC camp. Talk about political opportunism!