Atavistic return: The cry of being cheated out of power--Freddie Kissoon

JUNE 12, 2015 | BY CHRIS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

From earlier times, the PPP surrounded itself with myths that its leaders actually accepted as real facts. The early leaders of the PPP inculcated these fictions into the collective psyche of subsequent PPP mandarins and they too came to see fiction as fact. The loss of power in the sixties has a special place in the PPP’s internal historiography. It goes something like this; the Americans and the British connived to remove the PPP from power. Since then there is no place inside the archives of the PPP for some graphic truths. The story of the American overthrow of Jagan is a far cry from the whole truth, if any truth at all. But why does it still exist? It exists for the same reason that Forbes Burnham has been presented as a tyrant who did nothing good for Guyana. The alternative has never been presented. No one has written the positive side of Burnham. No one has demolished in book form, the form of the victimology conspiracy hoisted upon successive generations of Guyanese by the PPP. As recent as last year, the PPP Government Ambassador to Kuwait, Odeen Ishmael, wrote a book reinforcing this victimology thing. What the PPP did after 1964 was to use the story of the sixties to keep its constituencies loyal. Another weapon added to this proved a successful cocktail – the PNC’s rigged elections. These two weapons took the form of a song – “cheated out of power.” This symphony glued Indian supporters to the PPP. It wasn’t only political mischief when the PPP used that song every day in the just concluded election campaign, it was psychological normalcy. It was a mythological journey that took them to power in 1992 to which they held on for 23 years. When faced with the loss of office in May 2015, it was simply natural to sermonize Indian people with that evergreen melody – “we have always been cheated out of power.” A song that was invented fifty years ago has become the strategy to retain the long hold the PPP has had over the East Indian mind. This columnist is predicting that from now until the 2020 general elections, the PPP is going to tell every East Indian from every corner of Guyana, that they were cheated out of power in the 2015 elections and since the British toppled the Jagan Government in 1953, the PPP since has always been cheated out of power. Can it work for the PPP up to 2020? It cannot if the coalition government knows the art of political planning. The main fulcrum on which the PPP now stands in the eyes of its supporters is the victimology thing. This brings sympathy. But no one will continue to be sympathetic to a victim when evidence keeps pouring in that the victim was a cheat, liar, pervert and a thief. The fifteen years of the Jagdeo/Ramotar kleptocracy is overflowing with financial crimes, the nature of which makes this cabal one of the most corrupt in the 21st century. Former PPP ministers have huge wealth stored outside. It is stashed away in a labyrinth in which it will not be easy to find directions. Assets are held under the names of family members and close relatives. Except for the champion of dirt who hid most of his money in India, the stolen funds are in western banks and the Americans have the accounting skills to find it. If Dolly Khan is hiding money for the MBA man that he got from the Chinese, then Dolly has to tell the IRS in the US how she came to have so much millions when she lives modestly in Little Berbice in New York. If the coalition government can maintain a steady exposure of the PPP’s stolen wealth, it will destroy the victimology panacea. If PPP supporters see one PPP leader after another going in front of the courts for the brazen theft of the money of Guyana, then the sympathy instinct will die. It has to be consistent exposure that will weaken the credibility of the PPP. How did Satyra Gyaal manage to build a house in Pradoville 2 with a sale value of US$1 million? How did Irfaan Ally come to own what he has in Leonora? He has to explain that to the GRA. It is not only the search for the loot that the new government must pursue, but also the sale of Guyana by the PPP. No party so corrupt can survive for long. Supporters’ sympathy will vanish overnight. It is up to the new government to expose the PPP or allow the PPP to keep playing that infamous song.