…PPP, Jagdeo now embrace a former Brigadier as PM candidate

“It looks like we have a legionnaires club of old military people who want to establish a defacto militarised country again here in Guyana and we are warning people against this. We must take warning that we have to keep these people out if we want to continue on the path of development and progress.” In April 2015, opposition figure, Robeson Benn, uttered those words at a political rally in the town of Bartica.

Benn’s statement was in support of other members of the hierarchy of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) including its leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, and former President, Donald Ramotar, who heavily criticised the APNU+AFC coalition after several former army chiefs threw their support behind the multi-party group in the lead-up to the May 2015 polls.
Jagdeo, at a PPP rally at Albion in April 2015, warned supporters of the party to be wary of the entrance of former army and police officials into the political arena. He said, at the time, that the police and defence forces would be compromised.

“When they link up with the military, as they have done, and come into your homes and start kicking the doors down and when they come after you, who is going to be there?” a fired-up Jagdeo said at the time.

He went on to the tell PPP supporters that since the executive of the APNU+AFC includes former heads of the disciplined services, that the army and the police force would be compromised, a claim which was strongly condemned by former heads of the police force and the army.

At an April 2015 press conference at Freedom House, Jagdeo stated that the move by former army chiefs to enter the political fold broke trust between the Executive and the army management. He made the statement after Former Chief-of-Staff Commodore Gary Best, who was appointed by Jagdeo to head the military from 2007-2013, endorsed the APNU+AFC in the lead-up to the May 2015 elections.

Following Best’s endorsement of the coalition, Jagdeo took several swipes at Best, suggesting that crimes such as the 2008 massacres at Lusignan and Bartica could have probably been avoided.

Ramotar also expressed concern at the time about what the PPP’s perceived militarisation of the political arena.

According to a Demerara Waves report, Ramotar noted in April 2015, that Guyana might have been on the verge of following in the footsteps of countries like Egypt where military officers have taken up civilian office and killing persons on the streets of Cairo almost every day. “That is one thing we have to look at if this is a trend that they want to continue in our world,” the former President said.
Even former Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, weighed in on the issue. “I am greatly concerned that there is great danger if they are to win the next elections,” he was quoted as saying in the April 2015 Demerara Waves report.

U-TURN
As the country prepares for another regional and general elections, the PPP, has U-turned on its once strong stance of what it termed militarisation of the State.
On Friday night, as thousands of supporters of the incumbent APNU+AFC thronged D’Urban Park where the multi-party coalition commenced its campaign towards the March 2020 polls, the PPP released a statement which indicated that former army chief , Brigadier Mark Phillips, was selected by that party to contest this year’s elections as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.

Phillips succeeded Best as head of the GDF in 2013 and was appointed under the Ramotar Presidency. For months ago he was touted to be selected to run alongside Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, who was also selected by Jagdeo to lead that party into the 2020 elections.

The PPP said, in a statement on Friday night, that Phillips is the fittest person for prime ministerial candidacy spot. “Mr. Phillips is well qualified and equipped to partner with the PPP as its Prime Ministerial candidate, as it strides forward to win the upcoming elections and form the next Government of Guyana,” the party said.

Unlike Ali, Phillips’ qualifications have never been questioned. The former army chief holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Management from the University of Guyana as well as a Master’s Degree in Public Sector Management having completed studies at La Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. President David Granger, himself a former retired Brigadier, has in the past rejected the claims of the PPP. He noted in the past that the former military and police heads are Guyanese who have made a choice to serve the country.

“They feel APNU and AFC will be able to provide the quality of life for all Guyanese citizens,” Granger told Demerara Waves in May 2015 prior to the elections.

He said that it was the PPP which employed several military officials in the public service and even made a dismissed officer who has since passed, Minister of Home Affairs.