Mussolini and Tennessee Williams in the PPP

OCTOBER 15, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

I saw a photograph of a PPP press conference. Sitting at the table were four senior PPP leaders, three of whom served the PPP for “millions” of years. The three were Clement Rohee, Donald Ramotar and Roger Luncheon. The fourth was Bharrat Jagdeo who had a term as Finance Minister, twelve years as de jure President and three years as de facto President. There wasn’t even a slight presence of pizzazz in the room where these once powerful oligarchs sat. The contemplative look told the story of an uncertain tomorrow. One would like to see these gentlemen seriously participate in the immediate nurturing of a new pyramid in Freedom House. The political observer would naturally ask if it isn’t time to move on. Emphasis would naturally be placed on Luncheon because his ill-health has been reported in the press by governmental news agencies and not the private media which the PPP would have accused of exaggeration. The Government informed the public that the Office of the President did install an elevator on the ground floor to accommodate Dr. Luncheon. The goodly doctor himself publicly announced that he is suffering from a form of cancer. Dr. Luncheon was the only witness who testified for President Jagdeo in the libel Mr. Jagdeo brought against me and this newspaper. He had to be assisted up the staircase and allowed to sit in the witness box throughout his testimony in July 2011. Surely an onlooker must ask if the doctor isn’t considering quitting active politics. With uncertain health and long service, it may be the right time for Luncheon to look at the twilight of inevitability. But will he? Will the others? I saw a video of Gail Teixeira marshalling her troops as she conducted operations to remove assets from the Office of the Opposition Leader when David Granger held that title. She had a lugubrious stare in her eyes. I gazed at the video as if I was mesmerized not by the banality of Teixeira’s visage, not by the aridity of the bonfire that accompanied the exit of her entourage from the building, not by the autumn leaves that clung to her Wall Street wardrobe that she wore as she climbed down the stairs but at the symbol that formed a halo that surrounded the presence of Teixeira. It was a fading halo of the Latin oligarch on horseback who rides away into the night leaving behind the perfumed bathtub that the young men in uniform will throw out the window as the incoming leaders banish the image of the oligarch from the face of this country forever. The very day I saw the video of Teixeira, I was going through the exit of the Budget Supermarket on Sheriff Street. Entering was the man who held two portfolios in the Ramotar presidency – Ministry of Housing and Water and Ministry of Trade and Tourism. I didn’t see him because in my crazy style, my mind was wandering. Irfaan Ali said hello and as I looked back, I saw him. He had a sunshine smile on his face that was in stark contrast to the maudlin appearance of the little Mussolini figures that sat at the table and the Tennessee Williams characters that sit at the top of the PPP hierarchy. Maybe he is building the new pyramid in Freedom House. If he thinks he will be allowed to, then he is fooling himself. On Tuesday morning, I was a guest of the Channel 9 morning programme, “First Look” and the host with an intestinal curiosity on his face asked if I think that the APNU-AFC Government could lose in the 2020 elections. My reaction was swift. The answer flew out. No! The PPP will not win the next poll. Not with those who failed and still think they have won. This is exactly what is taking place inside the PPP. It is a sordid Catch-22 that the PPP seniors have been imprisoned in. If the seniors tell their supporters that there were neglects and mistakes that caused the loss of a majority in 2011 and 2015, then this reality opens up the possibility of the thousands who still are cheering to think about changing of the guard. The people from the seventies who Cheddi Jagan nurtured will become more paranoid. Paranoid politics accompanied Cheddi Jagan his whole life and he passed on that motif to every generation of PPP leaders. So the only route is to lie to the cheerleaders with the stuck record that the election was rigged. That too is no winning card.