By GHK Lall- PPP General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo walked with a special wreath on the eve of Mr. Robert Corbin’s last farewell. A hand extended; a hug followed. Jagdeo the salesman was pitching. Enter Dr. Terrence Campbell. He is not buying what Jagdeo is selling. Working together. Coexisting harmoniously. Guyanese living happily ever after. When something is too good to be true, it usually isn’t. Dr. Jagdeo turned up. Dr. Campbell turned his back.
The APNU isn’t that big of a sucker. I take the liberty of interpreting the words out of Campbell’s mouth. Jagdeo and the PPP are in deep, ah, soot. Referring to my own public take: Jagdeo does not do anything that does not first benefit Jagdeo the most. Apparently, Campbell and his APNU saw through him from the get-go. But they first had to give their former leader a dignified send off. Now the APNU parliamentary leader came out swinging.
When tings deh baad fuh Jagdeo he look around fuh see who could save he neck, and mek he look good. The PPP is in desperate straits, in dire need of a partner to rescue it. Oil money wasted. The National Assembly in ruins, a place of international shame. Disregard for the law the ruling party’s religion and practice. Plenty Guyanese hungry. Most Guyanese check and then ask themselves two questions: where did all the US billions in oil money go? How come they didn’t get anything that resembled a fair share?
But Dr. Jagdeo didn’t get to be a president, general secretary, and oil master by a fluke, by being slow in the head. He chose a funeral preview, when family and friends are most vulnerable, most open to commiserations, and then he set his trap. It was a trap baited, waiting to be sprung. Extinction could be in the cards. Take warning. Act sensibly, quickly. Imagine all of that at an evening of remembrances. My thinking is simple: the tricky experience extreme difficulty not being true to form, not living up to their reputation. Therefore, the political garland. The palm tree in the cup. Jeez: it’s the political equivalent of my cup overfloweth. And a rich banquet is laid before me in the sight of mine….
In this land of smoke and mirrors, tricks and pigs-in-bags, former friends are now interred, redressed as enemies. Mohamed is the man in the van. An armored van, since he knows his former PPP friends all too well. Shared journeys. Shared memories. Whoever said that this country doesn’t have its moments, its profanities, are nothing but ignoramuses. Now, there’s Campbell and the PNC first forced to go on the defensive (Jagdeo’s gamble), then count their exposures (Jagdeo’s minefield), and come out aggressively (Jagdeo’s holocaust). Dr. Campbell had a fancy one for Dr. Jagdeo: ‘wheel and come again. It does have a military strain to it.
Wheel: to turn smartly on the heels and on the second rotation come up with something better, what sells. May even locate an interested buyer. Specifics. Tangibles. What’s believable.
What Dr. Campbell did to Dr. Jagdeo was to let him know in no uncertain manner that he (BJ) doesn’t hold the commanding cards. A combined opposition (My word!) is the PPP’s worst nightmare. One accompanied by hallucinations, hysterias, and associated frenzies. Who is jailbird now, and who is potential jailbait in waiting? State resources, oil resources, people resources all accidentally ending up in the pockets of PPP national luminaries and national honors list awardees in the making. Yes, there is a medal (or should be) for extraordinary skill in stealing and coveting and grabbing.
Wheel and come again. Come with a new tire. Come with a new wreath in a new package. For the time being: no deal. It seems that Mohamed, the man on the run, is now Mohamed, the man in the sun. The interloper, the showstopper, and the drop dead (not to be taken literally) final arbiter in a PPP-PNC dance party. Now fancy that for a development, for Mr. Mohamed rising to the level of national gamechanger.
