Dear Editor,

THE PPP is no longer the party that Cheddi Jagan of the Political Affairs Committee and, Forbes Burnham of the Guiana Labour Party, founded on January 1, 1950. Just imagine, on January 1, 2020, the PPP would have been in existence for 70 years.

There was no celebration, no commemoration, and no recognition of the party’s founder leader, the party’s achievements, or its ideology. For this to happen in an election year makes absolutely no sense; in fact, it should be a worrying signal to supporters and members of the PPP. I suspect this has something to do with the disappointment of PPP supporters in the handpicking of the party’s Presidential Candidate, who is currently before the courts on 19 charges of fraud; who the Canadian Government disallowed from entering their country until his fraud trial in court is complete; and who is unable to prove the authenticity of his undergraduate and postgraduate certificates he claimed he studied for in India.

This situation is rightfully worrying to members and supporters of the PPP, and citizens of Guyana. Why didn’t Mr. Ali complete his undergraduate degree at the University of Guyana? To date, no one has acknowledged being a classmate of Mr. Ali at either the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University of India, nor from the University of Suderland in the UK where Mr. Ali claimed he received his Bachelor’s degree. This is worrying indeed; it doesn’t send a good example to Guyanese youth neither supporters of the PPP, who voted for more qualified and capable Presidential Candidates.

We have also not heard any mention of one of the party’s founding leaders, Cheddi Jagan during the PPP’s 2020 election campaign, either in campaign material or speeches. It’s not surprising that the PPP continues to lose votes in places like Berbice at every election Guyana has had between 1999-2015; that is during the Presidencies of Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar. There also seems to be a real spilt within the PPP with regards to its current crop of executive leaders and the direction the party continues to head in under the leadership of Bharrat Jagdeo. Bharrat Jagdeo’s PPP is not the same as Cheddi Jagan’s and Burnham’s PPP, much less Jagan’s PPP.

On the one hand, the Jaganites prefer to rebuild the party, focused on and linked to its vision and standards before 1999, a party of working-class Guyanese focused on building genuine unity, not the promotion of divisiveness, political vicitimisation, criminal networks and massive financial corruption. The Jadeoites, on the other hand, seem to think that Bharrat Jagdeo is the supreme leader of the PPP; the only thing that matters is Apaan Jaat (that is Indian for Indian and African for African/racially divisive politics), and only what he demands must happen.

It is no secret or fake news that the PPP-led Government, under the Presidencies of Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar, all but destroyed this country and everything Cheddi Jagan worked for in the PPP. The plethora of failed projects, financial fraud, Government corruption, extra-judicial killings, involvement with criminal gangs and individuals and, the violence all people’s of this great land experienced from 1999 to 2015 is still fresh for us all.

The party was initially a multi-ethnic party supported by Guyana’s working and intellectual classes at the time. During this era, Guyanese resisted the British rule of Guyana, we united to the right for self-governance and self-determination after years of slavery and indentured servitude. Sadly, voices of dissent within the party have been muzzled by the Jagdeoties and Mr. Jagdeo himself. And for this reason, the party has suffered tremendous damage, both domestically and internationally.

Regards,
Andrew Small