Dear Editor,
President David Granger demonstrates an immaturity in several of his decisions that appeared to be designed to impose his “one-man-will” on a “750,000-person” nation. The last time I checked, President Granger at his political peak secured 4506 votes more than the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) candidate. So why is he operating like he won 78 per cent of the votes similar to the numbers the People’s National Congress (PNC) declared for itself in 1985.
In an economy that is crumbling today, his entire organisation has been pushed behind the eight-ball. Therefore, he cannot automatically count on the commitment of 207,200 voters that voted for him in 2015. Actually, any astute political mind will tell you that it is now a foregone conclusion that if Granger stands for office in 2020, he will not get more than 200,000 votes in the 2020 elections. Two reasons – that five per cent from the PPP is now well entrenched back into the PPP fold thanks to the superb grassroots political work of President Jagdeo. Secondly, although that 10 per cent called the rational middle might not automatically vote for the PPP, they have totally abandoned the AFC and have little interest in the ideas coming from the PNC (coalition, call it what you want, it is the PNC). Actually, today the PNC is right back where it was in 2006 at its natural strength of 35 per cent of the population.
So listening to Granger’s comments while he was in Atlanta is a stark reminder that the PNC is out of political options, save and except for compromised elections. That is why Patterson is so vital to 2020.
It is important that all Guyanese reject this 1970/1980’s line of thinking from Granger. Guyana was fortunate in the past to have a “President Hoyte” who was wise enough to put an end to all the selfish political opportunism practices by a few that were nothing else but antiquated and antedated.
I am not here giving the PPP a free pass. We all know the PPP did much wrong in their style of governance, but there is a fundamental difference I am seeing between Granger’s term and the PPP’s terms – the PNC’s appears willing to tamper with the electoral process, they are grossly incompetent at growing the economy and they are unprepared to seek help, and most worrisome is that the PNC seems very willing to engage in ethnic and racial suppression.
For a country like Guyana to grow economically, it needs ethnic calm and racial stability. Unfortunately, the Ministry of the Presidency appears to be one of the lead perpetrators of this instability. As a retired politician, I find myself asking how have we arrived at this point and what can we do to stop it.
First off, we must all call for a time-out and it must be led by President Granger. He must stop this vulgarity and rule the country like a leader, not a tribalist. He must stop operating like a “Vulgarian-in-Chief” on the public service appointments, on the application of the rule of law and most importantly, on the social cohesion process. He must trust all the Guyanese people and engage and collaborate more. If he does good, the people will embrace him but so far the people are judging him by his actions and he comes across as aloft and bigoted.
Yes, he may lose at free and fair elections, but he must be the bigger man and recognise what is at stake here – Guyana, not the PNC or PPP. For 50 years this nation has suffered economically and politically, so much so that we have more Guyanese outside of Guyana rather than inside, so why would you want to rule the country in such a manner to continue to push our brightest and best out of the country every day?
Regards,
Sase Singh