THE Opposition People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) Triennial Congress, with its last having been held in August 2013, its 31st is being held this weekend on the Essequibo Coast. This is the first time since 1992 that the PPP is holding a congress (a) out of government office and (b) without any of the Jagans in the leadership.

The Jagdeo-led party will, however, lean heavily on the image of its founder, the late iconic Cheddi Jagan, and will make observance of the 20th anniversary of his death next year a main event for mobilization.

The spirit of Cheddi Jagan would, however, fade into the distance as delegates would firstly blame the loss of the party’s parliamentary majority in 2011, and secondly its ouster from office in 2015, on a departure from his “lean and clean” principle. Delegates would also question the almost total abandonment of Dr. Jagan’s multi-ethnic and class alliance approach for what has increasingly become reliance on racial politics. Note would be taken of the open advocacy by new ideologues close to Mr. Jagdeo for the PPP to abandon its politics of “tokenism”, under which a handful of prominent Afro-Guyanese has been incorporated into the electoral slate of the party, without any power or influence at the party’s leadership level.

As an alternative to the so-called multi-ethnic alliance, there is a lobby for incorporation of another form of tokenism from among the strident rightwing Indian rights advocates. This is unlikely to find favour with the Moscow-trained apparatchiks, the Marxist-Leninist old guards who, though dwindling in number and influence, would expose any strengthening of alliance with racist elements as a betrayal of Dr. Jagan’s ideals.

Observers believe that a compromise would be made as a concession to Mr. Jagdeo, who favours a strategic partnership with the business community, especially its Indo-Guyanese component.

The more immediate concern, however, would be to strengthen the lacklustre political leadership of the party, especially after the departure of key lieutenants of Cheddi Jagan, such as Ralph Ramkarran, Moses Nagamootoo and the late Navin Chandarpal. The party would also have to contend with the possible exit from covert political presence of former executives like Dr. Roger Luncheon, Harry Persaud Nokta, Clinton Collymore, Ally Baksh, Philomena Sahoye-Shury and Cyril Belgrave.

Observers feel it is possible that former General Secretary (and ex-president) Donald Ramotar could fade away, which would leave at the leadership level only Gail Teixeira, Clement Rohee, Komal Chand and Indra Chandarpal as credible pro-Jagan survivors.

As always, the focus would be on personalities, not policies or programmes. The race for the 35-member Central Committee would take centre stage. It is hoped that the process would not be characterized by smear campaigns and mudslinging in the manner complained about by Mr. Ramkarran after the 2008 Congress. At the 2013 congress, the spectre of fraud surfaced when it was discovered that there were 1,097 delegates but 1,599 ballots were cast.

The election of the Central Committee and post-congress composition of the 15-member Executive Committee become crucial, since looming large is the 2020 general elections. The next congress is not on the cards until 2019, which would be too close for the selection of the party’s presidential candidate. Control of the Executive Committee is therefore critical.

The PPP, however, has an excellent opportunity to turn the congress away from personality politics, and to use the occasion of the congress being held in Essequibo to unambiguously declare support for Guyana’s sovereignty. Congress is an occasion for the PPP to bury the notion by any of its leaders that Guyana could cede an inch of territory to Venezuela. It is also an occasion for the PPP to reinvent Cheddi Jagan and place on the front burner the party’s alliance policy of forging national unity. The Congress could swing Guyana’s politics away from potential conflict and confrontation if its preferred outcome is to advocate for a Government of National Unity instead of pandering to calls for ethno-racial consolidation.