WHY NOT A YOUNG PRESIDENT?
January 31, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom , Source - Kaieteur News
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has indicated that a youth candidate for the position of Prime Minister is under consideration. This may seem as a politically correct and astute announcement but it is one that is worth giving a second and deeper thought to.
This announcement has come at a time when the Alliance for Change (AFC) is engaged in talks with APNU over a possible grand opposition and civil society coalition. The AFC is proposing that it leads this coalition and it has asked for the discussions with APNU to be guarded by a non-disclosure agreement.
In the context of these ongoing talks, the AFC may find APNU’s announcement as prejudicial to its ongoing negotiations with the partnership.
It is not likely that the AFC will however extricate itself from the talks or issue any public denouncement of APNU’s announcement.
The comment by APNU that identifying a young person for the position of Prime Minister for the partnership is under consideration is a strange announcement. It is strange because there is no requirement to name a Prime Ministerial candidate. All that is required is for the naming of a Presidential candidate.
At one previous election, the PNC did not name a Prime Ministerial candidate. But on the campaign trail, the name Winston Murray was smartly thrown into the fray by Desmond Hoyte. But there was no formal naming of a Prime Ministerial candidate since Hoyte was attempting to gobble up all the attention as part of a campaign strategy to project himself as the object of popular support. He knew that his party’s record was sordid and therefore the strategy was to project him as representing change and the new PNC. His supporters were screaming, “Desmond!” No one was however screaming, “Winston!”
Offering the position of Prime Minister to a young person is only of symbolic importance. The Prime Minister holds no executive authority. All executive authority is vested in one person and one person alone, the President. The Prime Minister is only his principal assistant. The promotion of a young person as the Prime Ministerial candidate therefore is not a move of any political significance.
It would be groundbreaking if the old geezers who have dominated the political leadership of this country stand aside and allow the young people a chance. It would be a meteoric move if APNU were to take the sort of gamble that the PPP did in 2001 and name a young person as its presidential candidate.
Now that would show that APNU means business. Such a decision would be far from symbolic. That would be placing real power in the hands of young people. That would be an exciting political development.
But one has to be circumspect about APNU hinting about the possibility of a Prime Ministerial candidate being given to a young person. One has to ask why is APNU even considering anything of the sort seeing that it is engaged in negotiations with the AFC on a coalition to contest the May 11, 2015 general and regional elections.
After all, the AFC has laid its cards on the table. It has said that it wants to lead the coalition. And the negotiations taking place would have to consider this issue. It therefore seems premature and prejudicial for APNU to be even mentioning that it may consider a young person for the position of Prime Minister.
This may seem an overture to the youth vote which comprises the largest bloc of voters. But it is not. There is an internal dynamic involved.
The PNCR is attempting to mend divisions in its camp. There is fallout in Linden and recently there was fence-mending exercise. This announcement of the consideration of a young person to be the party’s prime ministerial candidate is political overture to the disgruntled in Linden. It is an attempt to offer something to these persons so that they can return to the fold and not widen the division in the PNCR camp.
In this regard it is a skillful political move but one that has serious implications for the ongoing negotiations with the AFC.
The AFC cannot however say anything. It has signed on the dotted line and committed to silence during the negotiations.