Dancing to upbeat jingles, waving party and national flags, contingents made quite a showing
NOMINATION Day yesterday in downtown Georgetown was like a show put on to entertain crowds lining the streets en route to City Hall, where party leaders tendered their lists to GECOM. Dancing to upbeat jingles, waving party and national flags-contingents first of the PPP/C, AFC, and then APNU made quite a showing as they wended their way to their date with destiny.
But the strength and energy of the PPP/C, and the unity displayed by what Prime Minister Samuel Hinds described as a united Guyanese group, and which President Bharrat Jagdeo called ‘a PPP family of Guyanese in action’ is a Cheddi Jagan dream come true, because the unity that party has created in the national construct was evident from the eclectic blend of races that marched with jubilation, led by the party leaders.
Ever since the split of the PPP and the consequential rift that divided the Guyanese nation because of manipulation by material and profit-driven external forces, Dr. Jagan’s dream was to re-unite the Guyanese people in the spirit of 1953, when all Guyanese people joined forces in a common struggle for freedom from colonial domination.
That dream of Cheddi’s is being realized today under the banner of the party that he helmed since its creation in 1950 to the time of his demise. Today, another General-Secretary of the PPP is poised to assume the leadership of the nation. Donald Ramotar is not seen as an individual, but as representative of all that the Party encapsulates in its vision for the nation, according to party leaders.
Speaking to party supporters after the formal tendering of the lists of candidates at the Nomination Day ceremony, Ramotar recalled the hopelessness and apathy that pervaded the country prior to the PPP/C victory in 1992, which the PNC totally destroyed since they took office in 1964.
He drew brief parallels of a then and now scenario, where hope was not only restored but the development took Guyana on an upward trajectory where the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, described Guyana as CARICOM’S only shining star, because this country is the most dynamic in the region.
The PPP is a colour-blind party that only recognizes people – differentiating between no community in its development paradigm, according to the leaders, and Ramotar urged the Party’s supporters to take nothing for granted, because the PPP/C needs a massive win to ensure that the progress continues with an intensified momentum.
President Jagdeo, who said that the beautiful faces of all the Guyanese people present yesterday, were what the party is all about, also stressed the importance of supporters turning out in their numbers on elections day to vote, although he expressed confidence in a massive PPP victory because each day “the party keeps getting stronger than the day before”.