When in power for 20yrs you become arrogant – PPP MP

A People’s Progressive Party Civic Member of Parliament has conceded that the party may well have become arrogant and made mistakes in its 22 years in office but feels that enough has been accomplished to warrant another term.

During a recent interview, PPPC MP Odinga Lumumba said the party is of the view that it has done enough work to win over the support of more people at the next elections, even if a vote of no-confidence is brought against the Donald Ramotar administration. He however acknowledged that mistakes have been made along the way. “We think we have done enough work to justify another term. We think we will do better at another election. We made some mistakes. When you are 20…30 years in power you make mistakes and sometimes you get arrogant with the mistakes, but we think we can correct those mistakes. I think people would like to see us continue. I think we will have to reach out more, explain ourselves more…be a little more humble.”  Lumumba was at the time a guest on the radio programme Hard Talkaired on channel 90.1 Love FM.

While he seems confident that the party can regain majority support, others believe that the challenge is greater and require more than just a willingness to admit that mistakes have been made. Ralph Ramkarran, a former senior member of the party has said that while PPP governments can boast of substantial progress in many areas, there is still a sufficiently large group of its supporters who have not been touched in any significant way by economic and other developments. “These are the people who can cause the results of 2011 to be repeated because their situation has not changed since 2011,” he said.

With the threat of a no-confidence motion by the Alliance For Change pending and the government declaring it is ready for any eventuality, the political atmosphere remains tense and the outcome uncertain.