I READ the front page article of yesterday’s Chronicle newspaper, ‘Power-drunk with one vote/one seat majority in House…’ and, without any hesitation, my mind went decades back to a story my parents always narrated.
They always mentioned what Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian President, said to Dr. Cheddi Jagan when he took Mr. Forbes Burnham with him on a visit to India.
Mr. Nehru reportedly told Dr. Jagan that, “You have a snake among you.”
One of the articles in yesterday’s Chronicle referred to Mr. Moses Nagamootoo thus: “His claim to being close to the Jagans was not false; and it is because of that close association that spanned decades that they were able to recognise the fangs behind the smile.”

Mr. Nagamootoo, not unlike Forbes Burnham, even if he had a valid gripe with the PPP – which I know he did, could have done much better for himself and the country, had he the genuine interest of the nation at heart and the intelligence to change minds and habits. We have seen, over the years of the PPP, the many ‘snakes’ that slithered among the genuine members of the PPP who were sincere about the faith of their country and people and put up a great fight against the greed for personal power and recognition.
I cannot deny, though, the pull that the ‘lust for power’ has on our behaviour. The lust for power can change the most genuine person if he loses sight of the real goal, even for just a moment. I cannot say, too, that I do not know that ‘Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough’.