August 15 ,2021
Peeping Tom.
Cheddi Jagan was an unrepentant socialist. A number of his followers, who later became part the government when democracy was restored in 1992, received ideological training and orientation inside and outside of Guyana.They were in the forefront of the real struggle for democracy from 1968-1992. However, when they got into office, Cheddi discovered too late that many of them were smitten by the adulation and wealth of the bourgeois class. Many of them also did not have what it takes to function effectively as Ministers. They turned out to be pathetic and palpable failures.Their incompetence and weakness of being cosy with the propertied class was exploited by Jagdeo. From very early he rose as a star with the PPP/C government because many of those around him hardly flickered, much less shone.
Jagdeo got lucky when Janet Jagan and the Central Committee tried to create the image of a balanced ticket of old and young in the run-up to the 1997 elections. In order to woo the youth vote, the party came up with the A-Team ticket with Jagdeo as its poster boy.Janet and the Central Committee did not cater for the strange twists of fate. After she won the 1997 elections, she realised that the PNC supporters would not accept her as President. Then ill health reared its head and she was forced to resign.But because the party was supposed to hold the Presidency, the third member of the A-Team, the one that no one expected to ever assume high office, Bharrat Jagdeo, was manoeuvred, through political musical chairs, to the Presidency.
Under Jagdeo, the PPP/C retreated from its working class orientation. When the once powerful Janet Jagan protested over the policy direction of the government, she was rudely told that she was a private citizen. She had no response because by then she was ailing and the PPP/C had long been seized by a powerful oligarchic class to which the old guard of the PPP/C willingly gave their blessings.
The old guard were supposed to be loyal to Cheddi’s working class leanings. They were supposed to be left wing in their orientation. But they turned out to be easily co-opted by the very class, which they were expected to prevent from overtaking the party.Jagdeo’s economics is pro-business. His policies were unashamedly neo-liberal and he has effectively co-opted, neutralised or marginalised the old guard.
Much of the old guard is no longer around. Many of the PPP’s stalwarts have passed to the Great Beyond. Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, Reepu Daman Persaud, Feroze Mohamed, Navin Chanderpal, Cyril Belgrave and Komal Chand have all died. Kellawan Lall, Harripersaud Nokta, Clinton Collymore, Clement Rohee, Donald Ramotar and Indranie Chanderpal are among the living stalwarts who have been put out to political pasture. The sole survivor of the ‘old’ guard in the Cabinet is Gail Teixeira and this is based mainly on the institutional knowledge, which she possesses on parliamentary affairs and governance reforms.
Terrible mistakes were made by the old guard. They never understood how to manage power both within and outside of the party. If they did, they would never have allowed Jagdeo to assume the post of General Secretary after the party’s 2015 defeat.It was a colossal political blunder or, who knows, even a political surrender. After the mistake of Janet Jagan, this decision should not have been even contemplated. But the old guard had become tired and haggard and lacked the energy needed to return to the legwork of Opposition politics.Jagdeo had effectively used his powers as President to increase his influence on the party. And when he was foisted on the party as General Secretary, he lost no time in consolidating his grip. Jagdeo was even able to have Roger Luncheon, a powerhouse and a close lieutenant of Cheddi and Janet, to support him within the Executive Committee level.In his semi-autobiography, Clement Rohee confirmed what everyone already suspected. That long before the March 2, 2020 elections, Jagdeo had a candidate whom he was backing as the PPP/C’s presidential candidate.That the old guard allowed him to successfully pilot Irfaan Ali to become the party’s Presidential candidate is something, which will continue to amaze future generations.
When you consider the intelligence and political experience of the other candidates, it is inexplicable that some members of the old guard could have joined forces with Jagdeo to railroad through his candidate.This shows tremendous political ineptitude and the soft backbone of the old guard of the PPP. They owed it to Cheddi to fight to ensure that the party in and out of government retained its working class orientation. They owed it to themselves to ensure that the party was not seized by the oligarchic class. But they have failed themselves, failed Cheddi, failed the party and failed history.
