By GHK Lall- What should have been the best of times for Bharrat Jagdeo is turning out to be the worst of times. It couldn’t have happened to a sweeter fellow. His elections nirvana is now an increasingly darkening nightmare. He turns one way, and there is the beast from the east (the PNC).
He turns the next way, and there is the terror from the abyss (Mohamed the Younger). He tries to comfort himself with census numbers, and a basket of tears results. He seeks Yankee help, and it’s buzz off, buster. Fix self-created troubles. Have a heart, stop being a crybaby, grow up, behave like an adult: mature, responsible, confident.
Dr. J, he of PPP high flying dunks, jukes, jives, and assorted hijinks was all fat taak at the beginning -the PPP by a landslide in the September polls. Events didn’t cooperate. His landslide has turned into a mudslide.
The smart set call that a perfect storm. Others see a confluence of circumstances. Me, I take the poor man route: moon ah run til day ketch am…. Or, slightly fancier, the tricks of men haunt, them, trap them, during their lifetimes.
A funny thing is happening right before locals. Jagdeo seeing jumbee during the daytime. Both he and the PPP have no fear of Mohamed the Younger, see no threat in him at all.
Things begin to go downhill from there, which is where Dr. Jagdeo’s mastery of oral surgery fails him. For a competitor who poses no threat, Jagdeo’s PPP rolled out war tanks and warplanes. The taxman. Then the lawman. Then the white man.
And sandwiched between those were some badmen in Lima Sands, Letter Kenny, Belle West, and other places now forgotten. If there’s no fear of a man, an unknown and untested citizen to boot, then why all that fanfare, those special 21-gun salutes? Could I have one, please? Not the guns, but the salutes.
The monstrosity represented by Mohamed is that he succeeds in snatching one PPP vote (one only), and Jagdeo and the whole PPP kit and kaboodle are candidates for the ICU. Calling Dr. Anthony, calling Dr. Frank Anthony. I erred; he is also headed to the ICU.
Is there a PNC medical practitioner in the house? It is called the law of the boomerang. Forget about physics, politics, and kinetics. Forget about Jagdeo’s hysterics. Think cosmic forces at work. If I recall well, it’s what the Bible labels the day of the locusts.
Locusts bring me to the census. Of people, not a swarm of pests. The PPP and Jagdeo gave away their hand when the census results earned top secret status. Because Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo is the PPP, I discard the latter.
The concealing of the census results connects to the pressures and vilifications (some probably earned) on Mohamed. In the clearest and most compelling terms, the differential between the Indian and African Guyanese segments of Guyana’s population has narrowed alarmingly.
Narrowed to the extent of making Jagdeo lose color, lose weight, and lose sleep. Lose slices of his sanity also. Every vote from his base now becomes a matter of life and death. Whatever delivers a death blow to Mohamed the Younger’s electoral chances, is an opportunity to breathe life in Jagdeo.
The correlation of the concealed census and the surge in the candidacy of Mr. Mohamed goes a long way in explaining the riotous reactions of instigated PPP faithful and PPP funkmaster, DJ BJ.
As if the poor man didn’t have enough troubles, the PNC gathered at the Square of the Revolution, and the crowd, the crowd, the crowd. Not voluminously overpowering, but far from underwhelming. All who said that the PNC was on its last legs, last year’s news, and can’t last, because it was going to come in last in September, now eat the flesh of carrion and dogmeat.
Those who said that droves of PNC supporters fled to the loving arms of Jagdeo, now search for where their numbers went wrong. PNC upsurge. Mohamed’s surge. Census purge. A culmination of momentum, but with a difference. The PPP has no fear. Jagdeo sees no threat.
So, from where are the winning PPP votes going to come? Commonwealth importees are one. Neighbors are another. But I think that the PNC has scented weakness and blood, so it is prime time and fight time. Jagdeo’s trump card has been giving Exxon the freest hand imaginable.
Americans are that cheap in his eyes. The Yanks are sickened by PPP corruption. It is why they dictated safe passage through CBJ Int’l for Mohamed to Bridgetown. Smooth as a Miss Universe’s mascara. The agenda: who teefin, who condoning, and how much.
All this has gotten under Jagdeo’s skin. Now, he grapples for a way to win. By any means. Whatever the cost. Blessings, brother.
