Give youth a chance
By RAFFIQUE SHAH
I AM angered by the reaction of Desmond Hoyte and his People's National Congress (PNC) to the elevation of 35-year-old Bharrat Jagdeo to the presidency of Guyana. Hoyte speaks of Janet Jagan breaching the spirit of that country's constitution by naming Jagdeo to the highest political office, and in the process bypassing Prime Minister Sam Hinds. He also argues that Jagdeo is too young and inexperienced to be president. In other words, he has reduced the politics of succession to a matter of race. For the uninformed, let me try to put Jagdeo's accession to President in a political perspective. The current government in Guyana is a coalition between the People's Progressive Party (PPP) and the Civic Party. It is similar to the UNC/NAR coalition here in Trinidad and Tobago, except for the fact that the alliance between the two came about two elections ago, when Cheddi Jagan was first elected to the office. Then, as now, the PPP did not need the Civic in order to form the government. The alliance, however, came about as a result of Cheddi's initiative to unite all the anti-PNC forces into one massive coalition. The other parties, including the radical Working People's Alliance (WPA) spurned the offer, while Hinds accepted it. The Civic does not have broad-based support in Guyana, but because it gave Cheddi a toehold among Afro-Guyanese, he sought to cement the relationship by making Hinds the Prime Minister, the second highest office in the country. So it was Hinds, rather than Janet or any other PPP nominee, who acted as President when Cheddi was out of the country. But the understanding was clear: the government was a PPP-dominated one, and the highest office must be held by a PPP person. Nobody, not even Hoyte, and most certainly not Hinds, expected that if anything happened to Cheddi, and more recently Janet, that Hinds would be elevated to the the presidency. It was a formality, therefore, when ill-health brought Janet's political career to an end, that someone else in the PPP hierarchy would succeed her. The acrobatics of the succession rites-Hinds resigning, Jagdeo succeeding him as PM, then Janet resigning and Jagdeo succeeding her before he named Hinds as PM once more-may have struck many as strange. But this convoluted process did not breach the letter or spirit of the country's constitution. Hoyte, therefore, was spouting a load of hogwash. In any event, no one in the PNC, least of all Hoyte, has the moral authority to bring such charges against the PPP. He, and those who support his wild rantings, conveniently forget how the late Forbes Burnham raped the constitution in collaboration with the CIA and Britain. They also dragged Guyana into a vicious and violent race war that still haunts its politics 30 years later. They also stole election after election. And they looted the treasury, reducing a potentially rich country to abject poverty. The other point raised by Hoyte (and others) when he said the PNC would not recognise Jagdeo as President is that he is too young and inexperienced. Oh yes? Look, I have seen so many old geezers mess up countries they have been entrusted to run, I am prepared to give a teenager preference over some of these doddering fools. From the geriatric Ronald Reagan to Pinochet, Carlos Andres Perez to Eric Gairy, too many leaders who assumed office on the other side of 50 have shown that age does not necessarily bring with it reason. Indeed, the only experience they have taken with them to office are skills in vengeance and sophisticated banditry. This is not to say that I accept Jagdeo as the the best thing to have happened to Guyana since gold was discovered there. Far from it, I know very little about the man. He was promoted to Finance Minister by Cheddi when Asgar Ali resigned, and for some time now, especially following Cheddi's death, I have heard his name crop up when succession was discussed. Indeed, he seems to have been handpicked by Cheddi for higher office, and that view was underscored when he became part of the PPP's "A" team in the last general election. Cheddi must have seen something in the young man to have placed so much faith in him-and that over stalwarts like Ram Karran and Moses Nagamootoo. In fact, if Jagdeo has a challenge to meet, it will be from this quarter. The old-stagers in the PPP will not easily accept the fact that this new-kid-on-the-block is now the boss, although while Janet remains alive they hardly want to rock the boat. Which, of course, gives the new president the opportunity to prove his mettle before any internecine war breaks out in the PPP. Youth alone does not necessarily make him a good leader. The main reason I support his elevation is that the old stagers in the PPP, like those in the PNC, are trapped in the racial divide that has damaged the soul of Guyana. If there is hope, it must lie among the youth, not among those whose minds have grown so steeped in racism, they are capable only of sinking, not saving the country. Jagdeo, who was schooled at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, belongs to a generation that could wipe the race slate clean. And in my view, Guyana's economic future is inextricably linked with its capacity to annihilate the race-monkey that was planted on its back by the very generation that is unwilling to accept the new President. To paraphrase the Beatles' song that gave my generation a special identity in our battle for world peace, all I am saying is give youth a chance.
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