STABROEK NEWS, JUNE 15 --- JOEY JAGAN WRITES:
In my recent letters, I have alluded to the PPP’s Gang of 8, and so as not to have the public confused, let me now name the Gang: Mr Jagdeo, Dr Luncheon, Mr Ramotar, Mr Rohee, Ms Teixeira, Mr Zulfikar Mustapha, Dr Frank Anthony and Mr Kellawan Lall. These persons constitute a majority in the central executive of 15 members and they stick together like crazy glue, outvoting and outvoicing the other 7 members, who fall in line with the ‘yes-man’ syndrome. The ultimate and only decision-making body in the PPP is this central executive which is akin to the traditional communist politburo, and which could be found in the whole communist world before its collapse.
How is this Gang of 8 and the central executive constituted? It is through the process of democratic centralism, another relic from a failed communist past. All communist governments worldwide used democratic centralism as their mantra, trying to fool their subjects into believing that democracy should be centralized in the hands of a few.
In fact, real democracy is totally the opposite and is based on the widest, ever-expanding base of people, who, committed to a cause (or a party), can express themselves freely and choose their representatives in an open, transparent and fair manner. This is what happens in the United States where leaders who don’t measure up to the people’s standards are replaced at regular intervals. Thus democracy works from the ground up, instead of the PPP’s way, from the top down, which is a proven failure, as the communists worldwide found out when they were thrown out of power because of the groundswell at the bottom. Remember, I am not inventing false premises because the whole leadership of the PPP admits to a belief in communism (Marxism-Leninism); the only party in the anglophone Caribbean to do so.
Editor, below the central executive (politburo) and the Gang of 8, is the central committee, which, just as in the former communist countries, is really a rubber stamp of yes-men and women for the decisions of the Gang of 8. Just as in those former communist countries, in Guyana the central committee consists of faceless people who follow the whims and wishes of the politburo. At Congress here in Guyana, these persons are all personally approved by the politburo and then voted into the central committee. There is no democracy in the PPP, but people at the lower levels accept this dictatorial set-up because they are powerless to do otherwise, and are caught up in a tradition of undemocratic procedures and principles.
Editor, the PPP is in violation of all the principles of the traditional Caricom political parties who reference the parliamentary system of the UK and operate on those principles of democracy, where challenges to incumbent leaders take place. For example, in Trinidad, Ms Kamla Persad-Bissessar challenged Basdeo Panday for the leadership of their party and displaced his malign leadership to assert a new direction and success for the party and bring the electoral victory which Panday could never have achieved. In Antigua, the same challenges occurred and success followed. In the PPP, because of democratic centralism, a euphemism for dictatorship, the Gang of 8 tolerates no challenges and, just like previous communist regimes before it such as the former Soviet Union (the PPP’s ‘Mecca’ − they still sell books about the Soviet Union at the Michael Forde Bookstore at Freedom House) where Mr Jagdeo was educated and where most leaders died in power in their old age, this Gang of 8 wants to get old and die in control of Freedom House. The supporters of the PPP have to ask the question now, since their defeat at the polls, can communism (Marxism-Leninism) make this country a better place? If not, then all the members and supporters of that party should start the process in their removal just as Ms Persad-Bissessar removed Mr Panday in Trinidad. PPP supporters need to wake up and bring back Jagan’s honesty, integrity and patriotism to the party before it is too late.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
