President Jagdeo can't dump PPP stalwarts
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I commend Bharrat Jagdeo, albeit belatedly on his elevation to the Presidency. While there are other eligible persons in the PPP, Mr Jagdeo in my view is the most fit and proper person to be President. To avoid any misunderstanding with other veteran PPP stalwarts, let me state: The PPP executive consists of many persons capable of performing the duties of Head of State. However, eligibility, seniority, capability, deportment and competence, are not the only ingredients required. Other inputs, based on the delicate complexities of Guyanese society, must be taken into account. Bharrat Jagdeo apparently met all the requirements. He is young and bright. He is a trained economist. He is charismatic. He is a convincing public speaker. His popularity with the PPP rank and file is high. He enjoys the confidence of the party leadership and was convincingly unchallenged at the 1998 congress. When he was proposed in 1997 as the third man in the A-Team concept of the PPP/Civic election machinery, everybody knew since then that the No. 3 position in the A-Team is actually the #1 position on the State, should circumstances so warrant. His elevation to the Presidency in 1999 therefore, was a foregone conclusion. Mr Jagdeo has demonstrated everywhere (including the National Assembly) a mastery with facts, figures, statistics, and quotes. He doesn't "hem" and "haw" while speaking. He has a fluent combative broadside type of delivery, which has been noted to pulverize the opposition. Jagdeo grapples fearlessly with any and every opponent. From his days as Minister in the Ministry of Finance to the present, as Head of State, his challenge to the PNC leader for a debate has not been accepted. His prodigious memory for detail, while never losing sight of the big picture, makes him a formidable antagonist in debate, whether on the economy, world trade, or money markets. Bharrat Jagdeo has cultivated good relations with the private sector, and has indicated that he would like to have similar relations with organised labour. This olive branch, however, is being looked at askance. Mr Jagdeo has vast experience with the labyrinths of international financial institutions, and is on a first name basis with key men in the IMF, World Bank, Paris Club, IDB, CDB, UNDP, ACP-EU. As President, this type of relationship is helpful and could be gradually realised with Heads of State and/or Government, as he moves forward. Some cunning persons with access to the media, (and perhaps with secret axes to grind) are trying to lead him astray. They give him advice which when analyzed reveals an intention to put him on a collision course with the PPP Executive. That advice also seeks to drive a wedge between him and the Cabinet which he inherited from Janet Jagan. A few pieces of the advice being proffered, are as follows:
dump the veteran PPP stalwarts Those persons who pose as friends probably believe that Jagdeo is a political infant. As such, he would not be aware that he is being covertly railroaded to political suicide. If they are really his "sincere friends" they should have instead been advising him to adopt the following measures:
(1) Tighten up supervision over some ministers Those scribes should desist from exhorting him to "be his own man"; "chart his own path"; "stand on his own legs"; "assert himself in the party"; "bring non party persons into the cabinet"; "get rid of the old guard"; "dismiss the Police Chief"; "shake up the security forces", etc. Should those persons consult with PPP activists, they would learn that the PPP makes collective decisions. Bharrat Jagdeo belongs to that collective leadership. One man decisions are alien to the PPP executive and the PPP/Civic cabinet. Yours faithfully, Carlton Campbell
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