Dear Editor,
Jagdeo and the PPP are trapped between fresh memories of their 2020-2025 corruption in office and broken promises of the re- negotiation of the 2016 oil contract with Exxon , creation of 50,000 jobs , re- opening of the 4 sugar factories ,etc – and establishing a position of trust after 1 September 2025 , which means not over-promising but developing properly considered policies. Jagdeo presumably expects WIN to collapse when voters realise its own plans don’t add up. But this will not happen.
It is now unambiguously established that the WIN leader’s political priorities, the end to PPP corruption and renegotiation of the lopsided 2016 oil contract are not only shared by the Guyanese public but by the other small political parties too. The PNC, meanwhile, would rather no more attention be brought to bear on their own appalling record on corruption while in office 2015-2020.They signed the oil contract that brought the feet of Exxon on the necks of the Guyanese people.
While the nation’s attention will be focused on WIN, the hard, cynical facts of today’s politics cannot be denied: the only reason PNC and the PPP are making brief references to corruption is because of WIN’s increasing strength. Were it not for the WIN party’s popularity, the PNC and PPP parties would be eager and willing to return to business as usual – talking about taxation, employment, racial discrimination etc. – in fact, anything that would help them avoid the C-word – corruption and the R- word – renegotiation of the the 2016 oil contract.
Instead they stand with their pre-prepared responses to WINS’s popularity – “don’t split PPP or PNC votes” . Which is, of course, what WIN wants and needs to show how different it from the PPP and the PNC. The WIN candidate Azruddin has forced the PPP into prioritising his own policy priorities and now he will force them to attack his own proposed remedies. Whether his plans are workable or not hardly matters. What matters is the impression that discontented voters receive as the wrongs of PPP policies are exposed and debated across the social media.
WIN, an insurgent party is at least coming up with ideas to address voters’ concerns. WIN recognizes that a crisis demands radical solutions, even if those solutions are necessarily controversial. But the policies of the PPP have only made their situation worse. Jagdeo and the PPP will further cement their reputations as corrupt and uncaring of ordinary citizens’ concerns by attacking WIN’s plans rather than coming up with their own. The PPP spent 2020-2025 casting poor quality concrete and neglecting the welfare of Guyanese. Jadgeo’s personal attacks on Azruddin simply aren’t working but risk cementing his position in the minds of change -curious voters as an outsider who scares the PPP establishment. Attacks on WIN’S proposed policy and competence has increased their political capital and continues to drawing attention to the fact that WIN is a government-in-waiting rather than just a vehicle for Azruddin’s own, distinct and larger-than-life personality.
The real answer, regrettably (regrettable for Jadgeo and the PPP, that is) is to come up with their own policies that will improve the lives of Guyanese . Real action on corruption and the re- negotiation of the oil contract are the only antidotes to WIN’s popularity. Even then, it is too late to wrest the political initiative from WIN. WIN is the key reason why le strategie PPP CORRUPTION isn’t working. In the past, in a two party system, the opposition could wait for the Government to fail and the PNC might be grudgingly given a second chance. Today voters have elsewhere to go – WIN.
PNC supporters would doubtless say this is a situation beyond Norton’s control, but it is sad to report that the defection of voters from PNC to WIN , and the EXPECTED loss of chief opposition status , corresponds almost exactly to Norton’s as leader of the PNC in 2022. The debate within the PNC party hinges not on the morality of a Norton’s immediate removal after 1 September 2025 but whether or not it would make a difference given the scale of the WIN’s strength , the poor quality of PNC shadow front bench 2020-2025, and the low mood among PNC supporters , some surely thinking about leaving permanently. It has become a nuclear bomb-type conversation, not just about survival of the PNC but if it is worth surviving the 2030 general election.
Davendra Persaud
