PRESIDENT Ali has won re-election. Dozens of my articles on this page asserted that his victory was a foregone conclusion. I have pontificated on the substance of Dr. Ali and concluded that he was a different leader than the Caribbean has seen. I wrote that this substance would make the difference in the election results.
I repeat some of the motifs of Dr. Ali that contributed to his re-election. Foremost was the indentation he made into the racial fortress that prevented cross-racial appreciation since self-government collapsed in the early 1950s. Ali was more successful in winning over African Guyanese than any other leader since the PPP-PNC electoral competition in 1957.
The analysts that have pointed to the indentations by the PPP in African-dominated areas are not reminding themselves that such a trend was present in the 2023 Local Government Elections. It was from there the analyst could see that the 2025 victory was inevitable.

Secondly, Ali has gone way beyond any past CARICOM Prime Minister in the art of people’s politics. In every country, the head of government will hug a citizen or embrace a baby when on a tour of the country. But Ali went beyond that. Ali perfected the art of people’s politics. Not only did he kiss babies and hug citizens but he also made people’s politics a cornerstone of his governance.

Ali is the only CARICOM head now and in the past that spent more time out of office shaping and implementing policies that would directly impact the working classes in Guyana. He had 20 ministers that covered the totality of state power and I guess he said to himself that why should he sit in an office pouring over documents when he could take the presidency to the people. His five years were marked by that innovation and it brought him the love and respect of the nation.

Dr. Ali is now residing in a unique niche. He has the opportunity to birth a legacy that will make his name indelible on the historical pages of the CARICOM region. Part of that legacy is in existence at the moment. He has to build on that. It is clear in my assessment of how he has used power so far and the facets of his governance style that he knows what is to be done until he rides away in 2030.

Here are my guidelines. He needs to select what was unique in the exercise of power in great leaders gone before him. There are not many to choose from but Nelson Mandela stands out. I would put Mikhail Gorbachev of the USSR, Pierre Trudeau of Canada, Jose “Pepe” Mujica of Uruguay, Jimmy Carter of the USA, Michael Manley of Jamaica, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, and Olaf Palme of Sweden.

Each one of those leaders exercised power away from the traditional approach where power was used without the achievement of a national brotherhood. Each of those leaders mentioned created a political culture where power was never seen as self-serving, intimidating, and alienating. In each of those leaders, people saw the governmental head as someone that was prepared to reach out and listen and not to lecture down to the nation.

Ali has weakened and wounded the ghost that hunted and haunted Guyana since Jagan and Burnham went their separate ways in the 1950s. There has been no window that has been opened up since then to let racial appreciation blow into the living room. His embrace of the African Guyanese half of Guyana and their mutual response has been one of the phenomenal political and sociological achievements of the past 80 years.

He has to build on that so that by the time the sun sets on his presidency in 2030, the sociology and politics textbooks would have few pages devoted to the racial bitterness that divided this nation for so long. President Ali needs to pay keen attention to the Scandinavian model of capitalism. Whether we like it or not, from now until he leaves office, Guyana will have a capitalist system.

He can create a Scandinavian model because under his second term, Guyana will have the resources for the state to make the proletariat, peasantry, and lower middle class have a pleasant existence devoid of anger and economic needs. There will be rich and super-rich people as oil money pours in. That is not the business of the state or anyone else. What the state has to do is use oil money to elevate the poorer strata. I believe he started in that direction in his first term.

Finally, his legacy should include the transformation of our adversarial political culture. Ali has it in his personality to have a philosophical covenant with the opposition. Jagan would have done it. Despite the opposition’s nastiness, he needs to go in the direction of Nelson Mandela.

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.