Dear Editor,
I HAVE not engaged the writings of “Peeping Tom” for some time, partly because I have seemingly been banned from the letter pages of Kaieteur News (KN). Notwithstanding KN’s unexplained, imposed ban on me, I continue to read and have grown accustomed to the Peeper’s pro PPP rhetoric.

His recent column in KN on Saturday, July 6th, 2019 captioned, “The paper tiger” forced me to rethink my position on how to deal with the Peeper as he continues to express himself in KN, in his ongoing role as the PPP/C’s mouthpiece.

It is clear that the PPP/C informers were present at the WPA community meeting in Buxton on Thursday, 11 July, and furnished the information on the meeting to Peeping Tom. I have no quarrel with this action since it is fair politics. However, what I find interesting is the lack of sophistication between the collaborators. I am also intrigued by the amount of time and political energies the detractors of the WPA have been giving to the party’s functioning, even as some, including the Peeper, have described it as being “The paper tiger”, “dead” or “Dead meat”. If these descriptions of the WPA are really true, the question I am forced to ask is – why do they waste their precious time with a non-existent entity? The truth of the matter is they don’t believe their own propaganda and are bothered by the impact that this non-existent entity has on the evolving political process.

In his column, Peeping Tom listed a number of positions that he attributed to the WPA, which he claimed we have abandoned “…in order to retain a place in the ruling coalition”. He continued, “Even though the WPA has been marginalized and humiliated within the coalition, it is still desperate to grovel at the feet of the PNC/R and the AFC so as to devour the scraps of political spoils which is being thrown its way.”

This position denies the WPA of any political worth and in so doing, reduces it to simply window dressing in the coalition, and in the logic of the peeper – worthless. Given this view of the party, why worry about what the WPA does or don’t do? Peeping Tom’s handlers, the PPP, know very well that in their quest to defeat the ruling coalition and return to office, the WPA is the “spoiler”. This realization is what is behind their desperate efforts to negate the potential damage the WPA can do and is doing to that party’s chances of winning the forthcoming elections.
In my opinion, the PPP’s leadership has not learnt from this country’s contemporary political history. One recalls that in the run-up to the 2011 General and Regional Elections, they had resorted to a similar, unsuccessful propaganda campaign. This one will have no effect on the WPA’s efforts at ensuring a victory for the APNU+AFC when the elections results are declared. The historical compromise between the WPA and the PNC/R in 2011 opened the door for the subsequent APNU+AFC coalition that defeated the PPP in the 2015 elections.

Haunted by the WPA’s “ghost” the PPP and Tom are having political nightmares of their pending defeat in the upcoming elections. They have and are investing a lot of political capital in trying to drive a wedge between the WPA and the PNC/R. This has proven to be a failed tactic in the lead up to 2011 and 2015. It will not work now.

WPA’s politics is not driven by the personal interest of its leadership or by narrow partisan politics, instead, we are guided by an informed and objective assessment of what is in the national interest. The PPP’s rule over 23 years spawned a number of problems in Guyana, the existence of which could not be denied or ignored. These included economic and social marginalisation of large sections of the society with particular emphasis on the African and Indigenous communities, and the poor and powerless. Added to this was their deliberate criminalisation of the state, their political and economic alliance with known drug-lords and corrupt businessmen, their sponsoring of the phantom death squads and the unprecedented slaughter of the innocents, in their attempts at gaining political hegemony of the state and the society. It was the above that convinced the WPA that the nation’s best interest depended on the defeat of the PPP by its opponents. That eventually occurred in 2015.

Peeping Tom is correct with his observation on the WPA present attitude on the upcoming elections. He stated, “In other words, it is saying that the vote in the forthcoming elections should be against the PPP/C regardless of how one feels about the coalition”. Yes, Tom, this is our unapologetic position.

The return to office of the coalition is good for the national interest, while a PPP/C victory will be a “national disaster”. This is our view, more so, with the coming of the oil and gas sector and its enormous wealth, which Jagdeo and the PPP and their corrupt allies are waiting to grab and control for themselves. WPA says they must be stopped from doing so. Our call to the electorate is to vote for the APNU+AFC list of candidates at the elections when they are held.

Regards
Tacuma Ogunseye