Here is the evidence of Guyana’s

doomed future

Time and time again, over decades as a columnist, I have pointed out that the danger facing this country is the delusional, irrational psychology of the PPP leadership, without exception. This was the legacy Cheddi Jagan left the immature minds in the PPP when he died. After Jagan lost power in 1964, the hemorrhage of educated, thinking, well-intentioned leaders inside the PPP left Jagan with just three credible persons, “Boysie” Ramkarran; Harvard educated Ranji Chandisingh; and Vincent Teekah. Teekah and Chandisingh left the PPP for the PNC in 1976. Shortly after that, Ramkarran died. The PPP of Cheddi and Janet Jagan was virtually bare, except for Ralph Ramkarran and Navin Chandarpal, both of whom had university education. They were later joined by Gail Teixeira and Roger Luncheon, both of whom were expatriate Guyanese; the former from Canada, the latter from the US. The two Jagans schooled a series of young men and women from the deeper recesses of the countryside who had no proper formal schooling, no proper social upbringing and came from very humble roots. They all looked up to Cheddi and Janet Jagan as the greatest Guyanese who were special human beings. These protÉgÉs virtually worshipped the Jagans. It was a horrible sight to see the 35 members of the Central Committee sitting around the table at Freedom House during a statutory meeting. A majority of them knew nothing about politics, Guyana, or maybe life itself. Whatever the two Jagans did to this school of Pavlovian activists, they knew only two things about Guyana – that Cheddi Jagan was a hero in a class by himself and that the PPP is the greatest source of knowledge and virtue and the embodiment of Guyanese history. When the PPP came to power in 1992, these protÉgÉs became the administrators of Guyana. To describe how they behaved would be treason against this country. But I will leave you with two examples and this was long after 1992. I was on the same flight with one of them. As we deplaned he was wearing a pair of rubber slippers and madly clinging to the electrical blender and coffee-maker he no doubt had to hold in his hands because his suitcase was overfilled. He pushed his way through the immigration line as he was an animal hunting a prey. The second example was at the wedding reception of the editor of the Mirror newspaper, Earl Bousquet, at the Ocean View Hotel. The Minister came in drunk, grabbed some pastries, devoured them, then loudly belched in my face and in the face of my wife and the others who were seated at the table. These people run Guyana. They are imbued with the psychological deception that they are superior to any and everyone in Guyana because they are from the PPP, the party of one of the “greatest” men in the world, Cheddi Jagan. This psychological make-up explains why there is never going to be any recognition by the PPP that it is a minority government, that it didn’t win the election in 2011, that Parliament can make laws that the President has to assent to, that it has to offer concessions to the opposition that when combined has a majority in Parliament. You deconstruct the words of Roger Luncheon at his press conferences; you put Freudian interpretations to Jagdeo’s and Ramotar’s utterances and you see vividly rulers who believe they are special, monarchial and superior. When Ramotar said that he was disgusted with having to engage in blackmail politics with the opposition, he was assuming a superior status, and was quite ignorant of the fact that he himself was engaging in blackmail politics. When Ramotar exclaimed; “For Christ sake, don’t let our opposing ideas paralyze Guyana,” he meant the negative ideas of others, not the PPP’s. When Ramotar exclaimed that Guyana needs a new political culture, he is referring to the politics of the PNC. When Neil Kumar said the Sports Ministry cannot open the Colgrain swimming pool to the public because people must understand they have to bathe first, he was simply echoing the contempt the PPP has for Guyana. Now read the March 19, 2014 edition of this newspaper on page 3, Clement Rohee exclaimed to a reporter; “You are asking the General-Secretary of the ruling party of this country.” An amateur Freudian analyst can tell you this indicated the working of a superior mind. Those who are afraid of the consequences of Guyana not having a proper anti-money laundering Bill had better start praying to their God. We are not going to have one, because the “great” PPP will not bow to anyone.