CHRONICLE columnist Leonard Craig, writing in the last Monday edition of the newspaper, made the point that PPP leaders relate differently to people than their counterparts in the PNC and AFC. The essential reason for this was overlooked by Craig – class analysis. I will apply class analysis, religion, and village culture to show PPP leaders tend to be more modest.

That is forthcoming. For now, I would look at the enigmatic and incredible attitudinal convolution in the leaders of the WPA, PNC and AFC and during the possession of power between 2015 and 2018 (Amna Ali was totally different) . I believe it is burdensome on the part of the analyst to come up with theoretical and practical answers.

We begin with David Granger. The most divorced Guyanese president from the ordinary man and woman was David Granger. Two ironies stood out. One was that he headed an army where he would have got to know the African working class, up close and personal. Yet Granger was a very still man who was incapable of being a West Indian leader.

The second irony was that he edited a history book about African slavery. How could he not find even an ounce of instinct to meet and lose himself among ordinary people? David Granger is the only Caribbean leader I know that was too elitist to mix with the ordinary folks. Only Patrick Manning of Trinidad comes close.
This elitist attitude was completely absent in every PPP leader from 1992, when power was secured to 2025. PPP leaders are simply incapable of appearing aloof and snobbish. I will explain that when I use class analysis to distinguish the PPP leadership from its counterparts.
No one experienced this down- to- earth of the PPP leadership more than me. I have been a vocal critic of the PPP and in those turbulent times, not one PPP leader even snubbed me. Each time there was an encounter between me and PPP leaders there was always a lightness that sometimes went like this: “Freddie, wuh write bout we today maan?”

Anil Nandlall leads the way on this landscape. Nandlall would greet a critic of the PPP government as if he was a friend. After several encounters I had with PPP leaders, we would end up laughing. From 1992 to 2025, PPP leaders may have their hidden mischief, but they always would greet you with a smile and acknowledge you. On many instances, they would engage you in a conversation (Clement Rohee and Robeson Benn being the exception).
It was the complete opposite with the PNC and AFC leaders. Something eerie came over these people in 2015 when they secured power. This psychological shape may defy analysis by the most brilliant political theorist. I am still at a loss to explain why these people behaved like that.
My experience with these people from 2015 to 2020 has led me to believe that something weird came over them and that weirdness killed any capacity to acknowledge the struggles of other Guyanese, no matter how patriotic they were. My memories are overflowing with their expressions of elitism that I saw for myself.

I remember waiting in the security hut of the Ministry of Public Security for Leonard Craig to come down. The Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, saw me and briefly said: “Are you getting through?” He didn’t even say, Freddie. I said yes, and he went his way up the stairs. I was treated as a total stranger even though before 2015 this man was a friend.

I sat at the airport with my wife in 2013 and Winston Jordan (that time I think was unemployed) came up to me and gave me information about the employment of certain people in the Ministry of Finance. In 2017, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, looked at me at Julian’s Restaurant at Sixth and Cummings Street, and very briefly said, “Hi Freddie.” There wasn’t even an intestinal smile on his face as he walked away.
I was having plantain chips and fish at Dury Lane in Campbellville in 2017 and Attorney General, Basil Williams, walked past me and said, “Hi Freddie.” This was a man that I would speak confidential things with when he was an opposition parliamentarian. When it comes to Carl Greenidge, I preferred not

to look in his direction. I am glad Greenidge never became the leader of the PNC and hopes he will never ever become a politician again in Guyana.
All of the AFC and PNC leaders did not want to have a conversation with me from 2015 to 2020. I would be dishonest to the core if I do not say that three of them were very different – Amna Ali, Aubrey Norton and Ronald Bulkan. The PNC and AFC should simply disappear from Guyana
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.