OPINION: PPP Congress – the good, the better, the best

Last Updated on Wednesday, 8 May 2024, 17:33 by Writer

By GHK Lall

So, what really came out of the PPP [C] Congress? Truth be told, plenty. Let’s turn back the clock and see.

To spice up things and keep the delegates excited, there was one inspiring leader singing an inspiring song. Down with Marxism! Out with Leninism! Look, I know it is not the Mighty Sparrow of the Mighty Chalkdust, but it will have to do. But believe it or not, the Marxism-Leninism that is now officially out came from the mind of the PPP. The greedy, ruthless, capitalism that was always deep in the soul of the new PPP, the last 25-30 years or so, is now out in the open. With the pathological greed and unprecedented plundering of the Guyanese treasury, the partial death of Marxism-Leninism was a long-accepted fact. I assert partial death because free market money is in, but total control is not out. Not by a long shot! No comrades. When I tell Guyanese about the overwhelming influences of America and Alistair Routledge, they scoff. There is the proof. People pretend to give up lifelong beliefs because they suddenly see God. Money. We had Desmond ‘Silver Fox’ Hoyte earlier. Say welcome to Bharrat ‘Silver Serpent’ Jagdeo. Of all times, I remember Jesus: “Be wise as serpents….” (Matthew 10:16). I don’t like doing that in this space, but I couldn’t resist. Jagdeo and the Holy Bible. Haha. I know I just did wrong.

One didn’t have to be a prophet to know that Marxism – and whatever hell else were their scriptures – was being reengineered here. Here is the first test: when was the last time any Guyanese heard any PPP superstar use words like “dialectics” and “proletariat” (lumpen or otherwise) and “bourgeoisie?” The last time those were heard were in the era of the ‘blue-eyed bowjee.’ Today, with a big hand to Silver Serpent Jagdeo, the heartwarming talk is all about demand and supply, equilibrium, investors, ‘furriners’, and rate of return, blah, blah, blah. Sticking to my religious theme for a moment longer, remember that conclusion about the newly converted? Meaning, those who found religion, and how they set out to prove that they are more capitalistic than the original capitalists. Well, there is Jagdeo and the gang in Arthur Chung Hall. Ladies and gents of Guyana, that is the one thing representing something that flushed out of the PPP Congress. 

There were lesser developments from Congress that are now part of PPP lore and worth passing mention. First, there was Jagdeo doubling down on social media utilization to get at “naysayers” and “detractors.” Go get ‘em, comrades! And don’t forget AI. This is unbelievable. The PPP has all the control that a ruling political party could desire, all the resources, all the channels, and weak and frightened men like Jagdeo are consumed by a handful of conscientious objectors. Jesus Christ! Isn’t that something? More than an obsession, a rabid addiction, I say. Shut them up! Shut them down! Shout them out. Show dem who is de bass and who is in chaaj. If that is not Malenkov and Molotov, deep degrees of Marxism and Maoism, then will somebody educate me, please? Don’t forget that Molotov used to throw around more than words. Molotov was a mad bomber, if the history of his cocktails is on the money. The PPP gat all de money and Silver Serpent Jagdeo can’t rest in peace. No, the PPP is only happy when its leaders like Jagdeo and the Dancing King (or Big Bopper) Ali can gain full control of the minds of men.

It was a rousing Congress. Jagdeo did his song and Big Jammer Ali did his dance. I can see all the way from town, Alistair Routledge raising his eyebrows ever so slightly. He managed to avoid turning up his nose in true WASP fashion. The British High Commissioner, the ever proper, Excellency Miller must have had a fit. As an aside, I believe that Exxon’s Alistair Routledge was secretly made an honorary member of the PPP Executive Committee at the Congress. From Janet Jagan to Alistair Routledge, the Americans prove again how they take the long view. Now for one of my own. As soon as Country Chief Alistair Routledge is granted his Guyanese citizenship, he will be the next PPP candidate for president of this Cooperative Republic. Just wait for the next PPP Congress. I trust that the Venezuelan Ambassador will cable this breaking news to Caracas. Maduro had to go and dig up an ant’s nest; now he is more trouble than he knows. Fellow Guyanese, think of the basis that gave the cowards and predators and stalkers in the PPP the courage to condemn Maduro and his designs on Guyana via that congressional resolution. Ask them to man any frontlines, and the discovery will be of talking to oneself, since all the big talkers would have already beaten a hasty retreat. Miami and Manhattan are solid safe havens in times of stress.

What else, compliments of Congress? The climactic moment was the Central Executive Committee. Somehow that sounds like democratic centralism to me. Without anything democratic about it, since the fix was already in, and the rest was a foregone conclusion. The PPP Executive Committee aka the Fantastic Fifteen. If anybody dares to say the Evil Eighteen, I will open a Facebook account and deal with them. There are two godfathers, two godmothers, one earth mother, and some muddah*****ers. Or, in the profound words of the illustrious Dr. Cheddi Jagan in an immortal description of Burnham’s PNC: there is a king, a jack, and a whole pack of jokers.

So long, until the next Congress. It is what happens from now to then, that is where the real deal is.