Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 09, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
In this the final in the series of articles on the PPP, I examine the prospects for the party in the years ahead.
There is no doubt that the passing of two of the most dominant figures in the party, Mr. and Mrs. Cheddi Jagan, has created a huge void in the party, but the chasm was felt more with the passing of Dr. Cheddi Jagan since he was the ideological figurehead and the person who gave direction to the party.
Since his death, an ideological vacuum has been created leaving the party like a rudderless ship. There has been no one who has been able to step into his shoes and to provide the sort of direction that the party needs.
Leaders usually step into these breaches. But it has not been the lack of leadership that was missing. It was the lack of an ideological direction. With the end of the Cold War and the triumph of capitalism, with the entrenchment of neo-liberalism and the pawning of Guyana’s future to the conditionalities of the IMF and World Bank, the PPP seems to have found itself in a quandary wherein it could not and probably did not have the inclination to move the government towards a more State-centric model.
There was also a powerful force working against any such direction.
When the PPP came to power the bourgeoise class quickly aligned themselves with the party and has been able to co- opt the party and the government. We thus have the interesting situation of the bouregoise class pursuing its interests through a party which was steeped in Marxism- Leninism.
Once the propertied class gets a foothold into the administration in the way that has been achieved in Guyana, it will be difficult to get them outside of the door and thus what is likely to happen is that the PPP without having to denounce Marxism-Leninism, would be transformed into the capitalist party.
This was why it a case of tactical ineptitude for a group some years ago to have tried to pass a motion at the party’s congress calling for the removal from the party’s constitution of all references to Marxism- Leninism. This was highly unnecessary since the party was already deep into the embraces of the propertied class.
It is not going to be easy to reverse this slide by the party because a new group of young leaders are emerging to take over the reins of the party and these are persons who are not properly schooled in socialist thinking and ideology. They are more likely to align themselves with the business class and this push the party further to the Right.
But the party also faces a serious credibility crisis. There has, for example, been no announcement that the party intends to give up the three lots it had acquired in a government housing scheme. This is a shameless development and has placed the party in a serious moral dilemma.
This should not have happened and is an indictment against the party and all that Dr. Jagan, a founder member of the party stood for.
The PPP should not be receiving lots from the government even more so lots in a government housing scheme. If it has not by now, it should return those lots to the government so that three poor households can benefit.
The PPP is not short of money. It is believed to be extremely rich. It does not need to be acquiring house lots from the government. It has the capacity to acquire these on the open market.
It is not going to be easy for the PPP to deal with these two problems: the ideological vacuum and the moral dilemma that the party finds itself in by applying for lots in a government housing scheme. However, the solution to the former problem will solve the latter.
The party must on this the sixtieth anniversary examine and debate just where it is going in terms of its working class origins. It would seem to even the casual observer that the party is drifting further and further away from its working class roots and no doubt because of has found itself in a position where it could be accused of applying for three lots when these very three lots could have helped the poor.
It is easy for the party to proclaim that it has always been a working class party. But what matters would be the policies of the administration which was formed by the party. If it is the view of the party leadership that the policies of the government are anti-working class, it cannot afford to do nothing.
The leaders of the party should speak out
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
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