The final humiliation of David Granger

Jan 10, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Robert Badal called me when I was in the National Park walking my dog. I put my dog in the car and a long conversation took place. Mr. Badal reminded me that I did say to him I would support him, even going on his platform. I did and will keep that promise. I made the same commitment to Lenox Shuman when we met in his office. I will keep my commitment to Shuman. I am backing the small parties.
One of the latitudes Guyanese have for extirpating the monster of one-party domination by either PPP or PNC is to create a minority government. Whichever leviathan wins a minority government, they would have to compromise in order to govern; not to govern effectively, but simply to govern.
Mr. Badal will tell you, in that conversation, I repeatedly said to him do not transfer the skills of an entrepreneur to the world of politics. They are two different worlds that call for a different set of skills, capacities and conceptualizations. There are aspects of human nature an entrepreneur will never encounter in his/her life that a head of government will have to manoeuvre through with phenomenal courage.
Politics and business are not related even if on the surface there are fragments of similarities. There are certain endowments that are special to a head of government. They are called leadership qualities. The Ohio University in the 1980s once composed a set of those qualities that a head of government must possess.
One of them is character soundness. It appears President Granger has that. He is not inclined to rowdy behaviour, philistine descent, and he is almost impeccable when it comes to his distance with state funds. But that is the only one of the many leadership qualities Mr. Granger possesses. It does not qualify you to rule a country, especially a protracted problematic nation like Guyana.
I am repeating it again; I have nothing personal against Mr. Granger, but he does not possess leadership qualities, and he will not transform Guyana in any meaningful way, because he lacks the capacity do so.
The president was humiliated by the AFC on Wednesday. It is a red letter day for the PNC party. Never before has a PNC leader showed such poor strategic thinking. Never before has a PNC leader been so outwitted by others. Never before has a PNC leader bowed to public humiliation. If the PNC wasn’t bankrupt in terms of available talent, Mr. Granger would have lost his job to a sharper competitor.
Within the space of eight hours, Mr. Granger succumbed to political blackmail that does not augur well for his government’s diplomatic dealings with oil companies, foreign investors and strong nations. The president saw the political chasm about six months ago, and with suicidal instincts, walked right into it.
On Wednesday morning at about 10 am, Mr. Granger boldly asserted that he had not identified a PM candidate and would only fill such a position after the election.
The AFC was livid. At around 3 pm, a tiny group of AFC leaders met without consulting the management committee or the executive committee of their party. The decision was incredible. David Patterson was instructed to contact Joe Harmon and inform him that the AFC wanted a public announcement of Khemraj Ramjattan as PM candidate – failure to do so immediately would result in the immediate announcement of the AFC pulling out of the coalition for the 2020 election.
Harmon conveyed the fait accompli to Granger. Granger travelled up to Hopetown and made the declaration without consulting the leadership of the PNC. It showed the poor leadership style of David Granger. He knew in October that the AFC was dead set on Ramjattan as PM candidate and was immovable. But Granger felt the AFC would not leave the coalition for the election, so he refused to accept Ramjattan, putting all kinds of spin on his refusal.
Then Granger finally placated the AFC. He requested that the PM slot not be assigned in order not to hurt Nagamootoo’s credibility, but Ramjattan would be given the job after the election. The AFC agreed. But leadership qualities were thrown out of the window when at the official launch of the 2020 campaign, two things happened.
First, Nagamootoo, who had exited the AFC, turned up in AFC’s colours. AFC personnel told me the AFC did not invite Nagamootoo; that was a PNC thing. Secondly, the president and the organisers did not announce the PM candidate. Ramjattan was insanely furious. Granger then finally said last Wednesday, he had not identified a PM candidate. The AFC decided to blackmail him. Choose Ramjattan now or we are leaving. Granger meekly submitted.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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