Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 13, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
The 2015 elections have come and gone. Scholars will do their research on its fantastic consequences for the reshaping of Guyanese history. I will always remember it, because it is the only election to date that I have vigorously participated in. I came away with silicone memories.
We help the researchers when we write about all the dimensions of the election – campaign issues, campaign rhetoric, strategies, personnel, results etc. But we must strive to include even the peripheral moments of the 2015 general poll because researchers see large meanings in small details.
The 2015 National Elections were not without their lighter side. That side should be written about so when the historians write their books they can ponder on the nature of the society at the time. I thought about this column when I saw Mark Benschop in his Tundra playing loud music with a flag as large as the country of Canada flying as high as when “the stallion meets the sun” (as Barry Manilow sung in his fantastic song, “Could It Be Magic”)
The Mark Benschop entry into the 2015 poll with its disastrous results for him tells us about the nature of people and society in this country. Benschop’s ignominious failure to even get four hundred votes has immense implications for the future of the younger generation of Guyana. Every scholar should look at the meaning of Benschop’s failure and try to understand why Guyana’s politics has been so historically disastrous.
The issue is not Benschop. This analysis is not about Benschop; it is about a certain characteristic of the Guyanese psyche a study of which can help make this society better. We can start with TUF led by the daughter of Manzoor Nadir. TUF got a thousand national votes. This remains a deadly mystery.
After Manzoor Nadir joined the PPP in 2001 and became one of its chief propagandists, TUF was virtually dead. By what logic would a Guyanese citizen vote for TUF with a leader that was completely unknown. For an obscure party, a thousand votes is a lot in a small electorate. After I check the GECOM station by station report, only then would I be able to determine how and why TUF got those votes.
The party led by a complete unknown, Vishnu Bandoo, scored more votes than Mark Benschop. This is a huge mystery. To compare the name Mark Benschop with Vishnu Bandoo, in Guyana is to compare a night club singer in Timbuktu with Beyonce. Bandoo does not live in Guyana and before the election, did not spend any lengthy time here. How did his party pick up more votes (actually one more than Benschop’s 315 but 316 is more than 315) than Benschop’s?
Benschop lost big time because he belongs to a long line of well-known political activists whose national notoriety made their egos bigger than the combined oceans, and it destroyed their sense and direction of reality.
My thinking was that Benschop figured that he had a national standing that was larger than both Moses Nagamootoo and David Granger. Based on that phantasmagoria of illusory grandeur, Benschop felt that he could carve out an electoral name for himself. It didn’t happen.
Benschop’s aim was to take votes from the APNU constituencies. He knew it was virtually impossible to get Indian votes in any of the ten Regions in Guyana, so he opted to become a national election player at the expense of APNU. He figured he didn’t need a campaign bandwagon, press advertisements, meet-the-people tours.
With his national standing, Facebook page, help from Oasis Café’s mosquito web site, he could become an overnight electoral success. Just another politician who thinks African Guyanese are fools.
I would say that not even in a three-way race (PPP, APNU, AFC), would Benschop have picked up more than the votes he got. Benschop’s ego got in the way. He made a tragic mistake. A moment of stupendous popularity does not last forever. To keep it going you have to be among the people. But even when you are among the people, it doesn’t mean they want you to be their leader in government.
Benschop needs to learn that context is everything in life. His partner in the game of misplaced context was Saphier Hussein, the lawyer. Hussein felt that his perambulations in the High Court over the years could cause him to become a successful national politician. Like Benschop, he got a rude awakening.
The 2015 election produced some crazies. Why should a crazy person like me call these people crazy? But at least I know my limitations.
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