Dear Editor,
I OFFER a brief comment on Mr Clement Rohee’s letter that was published in the Stabroek News edition of Tuesday, 7th Feb 2017, captioned: “There is a place for everyone in the PPP.” The former PPP General-Secretary (GS) in his letter defended the party against criticisms made by Dr Henry Jeffrey in his Stabroek News column, “Future Notes,” which appeared on February 1st, 2017.Rohee’s response to Dr Jeffrey contained many issues that are worthy of public polemics, which I am sure will be addressed when Dr Jeffrey gives his much- anticipated reply. Notwithstanding the fact that I am not one of the two key persons who will engage in what I believe, will be a most interesting debate, I am tempted to challenge Mr Rohee on two issues that he raised. The first is his position that Jeffrey, by throwing up marginal results in previous elections, was being “anti–dialectic” on the question of future elections.
The second issue has to do with his contention of a PPP landslide victory in elections. As much as I want to I have refrained from offering comments on those two matters at this stage.
The issue that prompted this letter is located in the last paragraph of Rohee’s letter, which in part stated, “Indeed, in keeping with the long-held tradition in the party, there must be a place at the table for the traditionalists, the hipsters as well as the tricksters, whoever they might be…”I am extremely happy that the former GS was bold in acknowledging something, which I had suspected for a long time, i.e. the PPP’s history of consciously recruiting into its ranks, “tricksters.” This admission in part explains why the PPP, a Marxist-Leninist party, after the passing of its Founder-Leader, the late President Cheddi Jagan, facilitated unprecedented criminality in the government and society, which resulted in the criminalisation of the state.
I conclude by saying “mouth open, story jump out.”
Regards
Tacuma Ogunseye