OPINION: Elections 2025: and they’re off: contenders, spoilers, intruders

Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 July 2024, 8:36 by Writer

by GHK Lall

To all new political contestants, I say welcome. Happy elections hunting. Guyanese need some fresh air from fresh faces, fresh ideas from fresh heads. The political and electoral territory has never been riper, more tillable. There are three basic questions. Can the new arrivals in the political crab barrel make some headway? Make a little headway, not overwhelm, prevail. It is called managing expectations. I recommend it. The second question is this: will they be allowed to make a difference, matter in the bigger picture, the long-term? Last, will they be trusted?

The electoral environment has never been richer. I ascribe that to the tireless efforts of the PPP Government’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali, and the primus inter pares Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. With all these doctors in Freedom House, one would think that Guyanese would be much less sick. The president works best with his blindfold on; the vice president pretends to be stone deaf. Stone and not tone. They have done well for themselves. For Exxon, too, and that is part of the anxiety of Guyanese, the curse of their situation. This is what is sweet with promise, cultivatable. The people are hungry, without, dejected, and disgusted. Angry also. All this money and look at where they are. All this talking about oil, and who is the richest, and they are coping with virtual beggary in a time of plenty. For sure, they are the superrich (the less than 1% in Guyana) and their closest companions and collaborators are none other than the same Drs. Ali and Jagdeo. Comrades are fine, as we all have them. But cronies? Only family? What about my family? is the question in city and village. Hungry people are energy bunnies, and that is what drives them to doing things that they never could have thought possible. Laff at Jagdeo. Lose it with Ali. Disbelieve both. I hope that this is neither too complicated, nor too simple, nor too tightly coiled.

Disbelief of the two top national leaders pushes me to the issue of trust. I crane my neck and look at new political entities readying for combat, other ones making their presence known soon enough. Do they have what it takes for disgruntled Guyanese to trust them with an ‘X’ marked in ink? Simple, isn’t it? But this is what burned hopeful and trusting voters to a crisp. There was overpromising, over expecting, things overdone, and then it was over and out. Who came early and loudly in 2020 went quickly. To the winning PPP side. I missed out. Will miss out again. It is a good place to be. The newcomers—here and on the way—have a positive going for them. The electorate is fickle: PPP and PNC yesterday, PPP and PNC no more. Up to the point that it is not so anymore. The president has the purse, and Jagdeo has the jerk chicken. He has shown that he can salt it, sweeten it, marinate it, and season it to please. Even political vegetarians are tempted, take a bite. What prospects victory, a foot in the door to take a seat then?

There is a plus and it is significant. Jagdeo’s own people don’t believe a word that he says. It is priceless. But who is there in the ranks of the hopefuls who can generate the trust, inspire the confidence, that they will not succumb to his overtures, side deals, and sleights of hand? I give credit where it is due: the man is a master maneuverer, a better manipulator. The only ones in Guyana who are better than he in those two areas are the superstars from Exxon. It is not only the PPP that has fallen prey to that predator. Guyanese should ask themselves why big political men with bigger and booming political voices can’t talk. Ali holds the money and Jagdeo has got the honey. Who can resist, be they a voter or a newcomer? Exxon is sure to have its own beauty queen in the Guyana electoral pageant. Here is a name that fits: The People’s Oil Party. If that is too low grade, a bit on the flat side, try this one: Oil Democracy, Oil Prosperity. It is confession time: I like it, has transcendent power. I am having second thoughts: There is still time to throw my hat in the ring. My platform would be based on three words: Truth, Incorruptibility, Justice. Forget about this nonsense about jailing people who ‘teef’. Why waste taxpayers’ money with bed and board in a cell? It is better employed feeding the empty-handed.

Now for the fadeout. The PPP has the money and the machine. It doesn’t have momentum nor as many as its own people still as firmly fastened in its corner. The PNC is going it alone (or so it says currently), and that is the beginning of a disaster (more later). The AFC and Mr. Nigel Hughes have some self-imposed barricades which they must climb over. The latter could still redeem themselves, could be contenders, though some self-inflicted damage has been done. The PPP has the upper hand by a clear margin. The PNC will have its usual margins. The AFC could still intrude inside the margins. How deeply? is the question. I think the new boys and girls in Guyana’s electoral junkyard dogfights could sway a mind here, and a finger some other places. History is the future. One last thing: the PPP has an ace up its sleeve: Exxon’s undercover money, Exxon’s energy. Is that still truly so? Ho, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum. It is pirate territory.