Rebranding a dinosaur

The PPP used the word, “rebrand” in its press release after a meeting of its central committee. It announced that it intends to rebrand the party with changes to the party itself, its parliamentary existence and its representation in GECOM.
The trouble with the statement is that, we do not know who is doing the rebranding. We do not know who spoke up at the meeting, whose voices carried weight. Only when these dimensions of that confabulation are made known can we determine if the PPP will change for the better.
Parties transform themselves after defeat after long years in power. That is the trend in the world but one sign appears immediately when new directions are being made – new leadership is definitely a compulsory requirement. The PPP will go not an inch in a new direction and will falter, wither and die away if they do not change aging stalwarts who have long lost their humanity and staying power and who have presided over two consecutive election banishments.
From 1992, there are PPP personnel who are still around and dominate the PPP’s hierarchy. It is commonsense to ship them out given what they have become, the wrongs they did while in power and their disastrous failure in 2011 and 2015. We can start with Clement Rohee.
As a stalwart of the PPP, Mr. Rohee deteriorated badly over the past twenty-three years to the point, where once he opened his mouth he alienated not opposition supporters but the Guyanese people. He commanded authority inside the PPP fortress and was not subject to decisions by others; therefore, he had to remain. But over the past five to ten years, Rohee was no longer a winnable figure for the PPP.
Next is Donald Ramotar. Mr. Ramotar is not a competent politician. He is not suitable for the leadership of one of the country’s major political organizations. Honestly, I think Mr. Ramotar has outlived his usefulness to the PPP. There is no way Ramotar can be successful in resuscitating the PPP. The leadership qualities are not there; I say honestly not even one.
Bharrat Jagdeo does not belong to the world of politics and should be the first victim of the rebranding.
One would hope that Kellawan Lall, Roger Luncheon, Gail Teixeira, Komal Chan, Nanda Gopaul, Manzoor Nadir, Charles Ramson Senior, Clinton Collymore, Indra Chandarpal, Pauline Sukhai, Ganga Persaud, Bheri Ramsarran, Hydar Ally, Ali Baksh and similar types are moved out. These are the central committee faces that belong to the past.
The problem with moving these people out is that, they have to move themselves out because they are the bosses. Who is going to show them the door?
The young second tier leadership does not have the authority to get rid of the dinosaurs and even if a few from that section have been promoted in the hierarchy the past five years, it is questionable they would be credible faces to the Guyanese people for the next five years.
Anil Nandllal and Priya Manickchand should follow Robert Persaud and take leave from active politics. Frank Anthony has been a failure as a Minster. The dilemma for the PPP is if it honestly wants to rebrand itself, it cannot, because it does not have people to use the brush to paint over the old coats.
After twenty-three years in power the entire PPP leadership became corrupted with absolute power. It destroyed their reason to think decently; it destroyed their ability to see people as human beings; it destroyed the inner soul of the possessor of absolute power. There were no exceptions.
These are the people who are in the leadership of the PPP in May 2015. Who then is in the position of authority to effect the transformation? If I were a betting man, I would wager my last penny that as the weeks and months unfold, the PPP will continue to exist with the troglodytes that have been in the central committee the past million years.
Rohee, Teixeira, Jagdeo, Ramotar and company will be around leading the PPP. And they will be their natural selves. Rohee will continue with his arrogance; Charles Ramson Senior will continue with his pomposity; Ramotar will continue to say the most comical, irrational and illogical things.
Illness will not deter Luncheon. Komal Chan will continue to lead GAWU. Sityra Gyal will be there. So will be the man behind Anilgate.
In the meantime, David Granger and Moses Nagamootoo will be reshaping Guyana so that by the time 2020 comes around, the PPP and its dinosaurs will be rebranded as footnotes of the past.