Mr. Jagdeo has a great chance to win over hearts and minds
Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
November 26, 2006
The 2006 elections told us a lot about people that want to rule this nation. I can never see politics the same way after what unfolded just before the August national elections. If ever the President has a chance of winning over hearts and minds in this country, then if he works his PR machinery overtime he can do it. The PNC opposition and the non-PNC opposition (I would say with the exception of the Alliance for Change) showed that they are not more committed to this country than the PPP leadership.
The 2006 elections should open the eyes of many of us. Of course, some of those who exposed their lust for power thankfully will not be contenders in 2011. I voted for the Alliance for Change (AFC). I did that based on analysis of all the parties. In 2001, I voted for GAP-WPA because I felt that my vote should go towards rewarding the Amerindians with a Parliamentary seat. This time I thought the AFC was more suited to what I envisaged will happen to the tight control of power if a new party was successful in the elections.
I wish the AFC well. The controversies that have dogged them since Ms. Gaumattie Singh was not offered a seat is something they will have to learn to live with. Many vilifications will be left at the doorsteps of the AFC in the years to come. If they do not commit any unacceptable violation, they will survive fictional drama and false accusations. They have made a start by defying the analysts of Caribbean politics that say third parties in the West Minister Caribbean milieu cannot survive. In 1964, Peter D'Aguiar created history in this country by proving that assessment wrong.
My feeling is that it is too early to dismiss the AFC as an ineffective opposition to the Government, and which is unworthy of criticising the PPP's performance. My honest feeling is that the AFC is yet to show that it has a conspiratorial mind bent on having power for power sake. Human nature cannot be predicted. Years from now, the AFC may turn out like the PNC and PPP. But surely, it has to be a most stupid mind that can just dismiss all newcomers by saying they are all alike, it is only a question of time.
How can any rational mind say that? We do not know that. We can never and should never make that kind of conceptualisation because it is philosophical nonsense to the highest extent. A person can swear never to marry after two unfaithful partners. The third may turn out to be everything that is good in a person. Three maids may be dishonest. Don't stop having maids. Keep looking and you may find the perfect one. A priest may turn out to be very ungodly. Should the particular church stop having priests? The more you think about it the more foolish it is to say that you don't trust people; people are all alike.
I do not trust the PNC because I have studied their behaviour and have seen them in government and in opposition. My problem with them? Keep on reading. I do not trust the PPP because I have seen them in opposition and in government. My problem with them?
Both parties have serious evolutionary fault lines. They belong to ethnic constituencies and are concerned with control and power more than nationalist dreams. If the PNC and PPP had nationalist leaders like Singapore and Malaysia, this country would have had a top class rating. I believe Mr. Jagdeo can still do it but he has to start immediately.
So really, let us be fair to the reality of life and give other persons and organisations a chance to see what they can do for Guyana. I repeat; one day the AFC may turn out to be not what we wanted it to be but it may also turn out to be the opposite and save us. Unfortunately, one cannot say that of so many others that have asked us to accept them as an alternative to the PPP. They have ridiculed, castigated, exposed and confronted the PPP since 1992. They tell us all sort of unsavoury things about the PPP's rule, many of which are compellingly true.
But when it came to prove they were more committed to this nation, they faulted badly. This may be putting it too mildly. They proved to this country that they may be worse than the PPP. The story of the talks to build an anti-PPP election coalition will remain a mystery unless media functionaries keep at it and bring to the attention of the people of this country the lust for power that exists inside the minds of those that want us to believe they are better leaders than the PPP.
The facts surrounding the failure of a grand coalition against the PPP in the general elections of 2006 make sad and tragic reading. It also offers President Jagdeo a unique and wonderful opportunity to reach out to Guyanese and prove to all Guyanese that he is better than the people who have been labeling him in negative ways since he became president seven years ago. I see one of my tasks in life as a person living here to reveal the truths of this nation to my fellow citizens if I happen to know them. A generation should know its country's truths and not die without knowing what shaped their society and the forces that impacted on their lives in both the negative and positive ways.
A society is entitled to this knowledge. Hidden knowledge does nothing good for the advancement of civilisation. We can correct mistakes that can save humanity and we can avoid the pitfalls of tragedy that may destroy civilisation if we have knowledge of how social forces move in history, how they shape our lives and who make up these forces and who counted for what. These are the truths of history that must be brought to the surface so knowledge can be possessed.
Truths can be hard to take, can be hard to swallow but they must never be buried. My brother, Harold “Lightweight” Kissoon, who died two weeks ago, had a public spat in this newspaper with me when I wrote that the Kissoon siblings grew up in D'Urban Street with just one meal a day. We were so poor that many days I went hungry. He felt embarrassed by the release of that information. I was not ashamed. If others read about how I came out of my poverty, it may offer them a guide to successful survival. Likewise if the people in this country know about the secrets that led to the failure of the will in August this year of those that asked us to believe they are better than the PPP, they would know who to trust in the future.