Dear Editor,
Even with an unassailable seven-seat majority, the new PPP is a repeat of the old PPP of past 5-year stints. In fact, I assert that this new PPP Govt is shaping up to be worse than the worst that Guyanese have had the misfortune to experience. In the four months since the completion of the so-called “fair” and, forcing into barren territory, “credible” elections of 2025, the insecure and insidious nature of the ruling party has become more pronounced.
First, President Ali speaks from one side of his mouth about what is disruptive and divisive yet, somehow manages to spew out from the other side this fairytale of his about One Guyana. His actions stir great unease in many Guyanese, but then he still advances to gush with a straight face about being for all citizens. How does a national leader tell the people at the half-year point to vest their trust in he and his group, then walks back unconcernedly, even dismissively, what he committed to, in Jan and Aug 2025, if not other times? To pour salt in the wounds of the bruised and hurting, there he was enjoying a delightful holiday season. Quite a few in Guyana are impoverished and struggling, and there was their president living the rich life, laffing and dancing. I will not fault any leader for taking the people for granted, making them into the butt of his or her jokes. Those who put him where he is must fetch the baggage.
Second, President Ali likes to talk about new visions and new ways. He may not know, but darkness is the death of democracy (more to follow). This is not GPL darkness; it is that practice of withholding information from a nation, then calling the people ignorant, even stupid. Guyanese can count sheep to go to sleep; they cannot count how many people are living in this country, or present a number of how many. Perhaps, the people are seen as sheep to be led by the ears, and the tail, if necessary. In his second inauguration, the president spoke of going after misinformation and disinformation. I assert that the PPP Govt is the biggest disseminator of misinformation and disinformation, so the recommendation is that a start be made there. Who has the money and other assets, the outlets, the overseas training, and the history? Has it not been the PPP in every instance? Rather benignly, I find myself thinking that those who make the loudest noises about misinformation or disinformation, may be among the best practitioners of what governments fear and loathe. The standard sequence is: rail against first; suppress next; own and control subsequently; weaponize last.
Third, there has been commencement of E-ID card enrollment, and tint limits, but no law in place to give injured citizens some right of recourse. Those are not missteps, but part of a message: the PPP is in charge, and that’s the way it will be. Get used to the future, and learn to like it.
Fourth, there are few anywhere who can match the PPP-from Ali to Jagdeo to Nandlall-in their advocacy of democracy. A democracy vibrates when the government shares information. Access to it, anyone? Census results and fateful GDF helicopter crash, somebody? Talk is cheap, and democracy is cheapened into the undesirable and unbuyable, when there is suffocation of information, a parliament hobbled and hung, and reduced to a parrot squawking and trash talking when it does operate.
Expect more of the same, if not the unprecedented and the horrible. Welcome to a preview of the future.