THE New York Times journalist, Maggie Haberman, who has just authored a book on the Trump Administration titled “Regime Change”, recently said something curiously interesting. In an interview on the television programme, The Daily Show, she said access to President Trump is easier in his second term than in his first.
She said the reason being that Trump normally gives out his cell number to journalists who call him and he would talk to them. She says some of the journalists would say, “Wow, I have the president’s number and I can speak to him directly.” Mr. Trump was a media person, so he knows the PR thing.
When Irfaan Ali became president, he retained his old cell number. That is the one I knew he had before he became president. That is the number he uses and he has given it the way Mr. Trump has done and the core of the media grouping in Guyana knows his number. President Ali does not refuse to give his number to people he knows would not abuse the privilege that he has bestowed on them.
For the President of Guyana to do this is an enormous break with tradition not only in Guyana but the world. Presidents and Prime Ministers as an ingrained proclivity, do not give out their private cell number and they confine it to Cabinet members and state intelligence chiefs.
In Guyana, people who are millions times below the importance of the president see their mobile number as a colossus thing of importance and do not give it out. Remember the infamous incident which contributed to the derailment of the political future of Cathy Hughes. When she was a Minister in the APNU+AFC government, her fellow AFC executive, who at the time was in charge of the Leonora athletic track and the D’Urban Park project, Trevor Williams, asked her for the cell number of Volda Lawrence. According to Williams, Mrs. Hughes said: “I cannot give you the cell number of a Minister.”
Speaking for myself, I have always published in my columns my mobile number, my land line and email address. Here they are again – 614-5927, 222-1615, 222-1616 and fredkissoon@yahoo.com. I do not use Facebook or other social media platforms except my podcast, The Freddie Kissoon Show.
The question is – is it politically correct for the president to do so, or does it have negative implications? I guess Presidents Ali and Trump should tell us that. I cannot write competently on the usefulness of such a policy for President Trump, but as someone who knew Irfaan Ali before he entered politics, I know that reaching out to people and the need to be in contact with the citizens is part of his persona.
That kind of approach to politics has set Dr Ali apart from the rest of Guyana’s previous presidents. Please see my last Sunday column, “Affability: Comparing Presidents Ali, Jagan and Burnham.” I believe the success of this type of leadership can be seen in the results of the last election. Leaving out the rigged national elections of 1968, 1973, 1980 and 1985, Irfaan Ali to date is the only Guyanese president that has discernible, statistical data to his election politics that proves the acquisition of cross-over voting.
Here is a theory of mine. It starts with the admission of VP Bharrat Jagdeo at one of his press conferences that WIN got votes because people who did not want to vote for the PPP chose not to vote for the PNC either and thus they gave their vote to WIN.
I am theorising that if there wasn’t WIN, then those persons who crossed over to WIN would have decided days before the vote to give their ballots to Ali instead of the PNC. I do acknowledge there would have been a state of mind that said: “no PPP, no PNC, we are staying home”. But there would also have been a sizeable crossover to Dr Ali. What we will never know if there wasn’t WIN whether Dr Ali may have secured a two/thirds majority.
Dr Ali goes out in the next election because of term limits, and thus Guyana will never know if in 2030 if he could have achieved the unachievable and secure a two/thirds majority. In my analytical thinking, had there been no WIN, Dr Ali would have picked up a two/thirds majority. The factors lie in his differences as a political persuader. The telephone number thing, the constant direct embrace of the populace, the placating father figure, etc have created a huge legacy for Mohamed Irfaan Ali. We have to wait and see if a future CARICOM leader can surpass him.
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.
