IT is said by many who are openly anti-PPP that President Ali will be re-elected. I have read twice in the Stabroek News (SN) editorial page that he will win. When SN can write that then you have to ask why. This is a newspaper that appears more politicised in its journalism that even Fox News.
I don’t think Dr. Ali’s assured victory is because there is a paucity of opposing contestants. Even if the PNC had a leader with vision and the field had some formidable personalities whose talent is recognised, Ali would have still beaten them.
To beat Irfaan Ali in an election contest, you have to be more pronounced and match him in the following areas; unique style; ability to be persuasive; capacity to make people feel comfortable with their country’s leader; uncanny ability to lose yourself as leader in the company of the citizenry; the complex endeavour to get into the psychology of others with resulting trust on the part of the recipient; the quality of mixing office and lightness that make people feel you have the common touch yet they respect you as leader; the willingness to delve into sensitive areas of dispute without fear of embarrassment; the courage to face nationally adverse situations with the inevitable outcome of acceptance; the creation of an esoteric aura that makes people feel that they don’t really know their leader but they know he is a good person; the ease with which a natural expression comes; the possession of an evocative sense of humour; the identification with social classes that want to see the nation’s leader share the country’s wealth; and finally, the transformative vision that impacts on the society.
In doing this comparison, I find only Edward Seaga in Jamaica, Eric Gairy in Grenada, Basdeo Panday in Trinidad, Vere Bird Senior in Antigua, Mia Mottley in Barbados, Ralph Gonsalves in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, George Price of Belize and in Guyana, Burnham and Jagan had/have some of the 13 leadership qualities listed above.
I have left out PJ. Patterson in Jamaica, Maurice Bishop of Grenada and John Compton of St. Lucia, the reason being that of the 13-character traits listed here, Patterson and Compton just had one. They came across as leaders without any touch of arrogance and appeared to their citizens as likeable humans.
I would rank Bishop as one of the sincerest post-colonial leaders the Third World has given birth to. I think only a handful of post-colonial leaders were so worshipped by the masses as Bishop was. But I knew Maurice, up close and personal, and he was not endowed with half of the leadership qualities I see in Irfaan Ali.
The caveat with this comparison is that of the nine Caribbean leaders enumerated here, none of them had even half of the leadership motifs described in the opening paragraphs and which I believe Irfaan Ali carry with him. Space will be a constraint in doing a plausible comparison so I will simply identify which leadership quality each of the nine possessed. I will not use the exact words that I have applied when assigning the qualities to Irfaan Ali.
Mia Mottley: A transformative PM that her citizens believe is made of good intention.
Basdeo Panday: A down-to-earth PM that lacked any touch of arrogance.
Edward Seaga: A man of the people that Jamaicans felt that they could have talked to when they wanted to.
Eric Gairy: Possessed the common touch. He had a way with the masses.
Vere Bird Senior: Very similar in style with that of Gairy. Antiguans saw him as a father figure.
Ralph Gonsalves: He is a smart PM that knows the art of persuasion, and that persuasion has not led him into alleyways of distance from the people of St. Vincent.
George Price: He was from the Mulatto/Creole class, but he never wore that badge on his shirt sleeve and the people of then British Honduras saw him as a father figure they could have trusted.
Forbes Burnham: Like him or hate him, he had the innate art of wining the hearts and minds of those that he appealed to. His could wade through his constituencies like if you were peeling an orange.
Cheddi Jagan: The best of the nine Caribbean leaders listed here. Jagan was made of an uncommon fabric that the post-colonial world will take a very long time to see again.
President Irfaan Ali, I believe, is poised to become the definitive Caribbean leader when he receives his second term. I believed all of the nine leaders listed above were of high quality but from my studies I think none of them embodied/embody (Mottley and Gonsalves are still Prime Ministers) the 13 leadership motifs stated above. I wish him well in the future.

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.