The PPP lacks the vision required to move Guyana to modernity

DEAR EDITOR, If one was to listen to the leaders of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) and have no worldview, they would safely conclude that service in the Armed Forces somehow negates one from service after one takes off the uniform. Contrary to its public utterances and histrionics about the support the coalition is getting from military veterans, the PPP has in its employ several ex-military men; Ronald Gajraj, Major Generals, Joe Singh and Michael Atherly, and several other veterans and active duty Officers who all serve at the pleasure of the President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar. That the General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee, whose party’s support base is rapidly dwindling, would choose to waste valuable time at a press conference to extol and misinform on his perception of the decision making of the leadership of the APNU+AFC and the role of Military Veterans in that process, is pathetic. All Guyanese, regardless of where they served previously or where they are currently working, are welcome aboard the APNU+AFC Unity-Train. I am of the firm belief that Rohee and his bosses Jagdeo and Ramotar are not concerned about ‘Ex-Military officers’ in the APNU+AFC coalition, this rhetoric is a ploy, part of the script that will be used to explain their defeat on Monday 11th May. The PPP had hoped that the old song and dance about the military would gain traction and cause persons in what used to be their strongholds to be afraid and cling to the cup. Times have changed and thanks to the World Wide Web; smart phones, television and Social Media only the uneducated and un-wired are wooed by negative PPP propaganda and fear mongering. The people of Guyana know that Granger and the APNU+AFC pose no danger but instead are game changers.  The fear of the PPP leadership and the reason why they see the APNU+AFC movement as a danger is that the APNU+AFC and Granger represent the new politics that is needed to usher in National Unity and National Development. The PPP knows that the only people that Granger is a danger to, are persons involved in criminal activities and those who intend to commit crimes against the state. The real danger to the PPP has been technology; not Granger. Access to information continues to work against them and their messages of doom and gloom. A visit to Wikipedia would show scores of Political leaders who served in the military. The United States of America; of her 44 Presidents, 26 were Military Veteran, 20% of Congress (2013-2014) were Military Veterans, 73% of Congress (1971-1973) were Military Veterans. Four of Great Britain’s Prime Ministers (Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan) were Military Veterans. Like on so many other issues in these elections, the PPP is again on the wrong side of history and continues to show that it lacks the vision and the forward-looking strategy that is required to move Guyana to modernity. The PPP on this issue, and as reflected by its policies and programmes over the last 23 years, is bent on ‘small-tent’ politics; the politics of subtraction and division, a formula that has left us a broken and divided nation. APNU+AFC is the future; ‘big-tent’ politics, six political parties committed to the formation of a government of National Unity. This is the way forward, this is a winning formula for Guyana. It is Time. Mark Archer