I HAVE not done the research because source material was not easily available.
I wanted to see the percentage gained by Cheddi Jagan at each congress of the PPP over the past decades for a position on the Central Committee. I called a few people from the PPP and they said they doubt whether there is actual publication of percentage points and even if there is, such material is not easily available.
What is easily known throughout the world is that Cheddi’s percentage of total votes at each congress had to be near to 100. Knowing Cheddi’s percentage points at each congress would help to contribute to history when we know today what percentage Irfaan collects.
This is the first time Dr. Ali will face congressional voting since he became president, so I believe all eyes will be on those numbers this afternoon. Can the percentage of the votes Irfaan receive today be the highest in the PPP’s history? In other words, can the amount of ballots he collects as a percentage of total votes cast be the highest for any PPP contestant?
In yesterday’s column (Saturday), I did indicate that I may do a column comparing Maurice Bishop of Grenada with Irfaan Ali of Guyana. The comparison becomes vivid if you knew both men. I think Maurice stood out in pyrotechnical ways as a leader that had a unique personality. I was in Grenada when about 10,000 people took to the street to free Bishop from house arrest after the ruling New Jewel Movement suffered a destructive schism pitting Bishop against Coard.
When Bishop was put under house arrest, those close to the government, as I was as an adviser, knew that it was over for the revolution. Bishop was too charismatic, too unique, too loved to have done that to him. There comes a time when a leader’s aura is so penetrating in a country and he/she becomes the country.
One can think of Castro, Obama, Indira Gandhi, Mandela, Nasser in Egypt, Khrushchev in the USSR, Tito in Yugoslavia, Peron in Argentina, Gaddafi in Libya (at the time), de Gaulle in France among others. Bishop fits into that personality.
It was almost impossible to sit down with Bishop and after a session with him not like him. Some leaders have that unique gift. Irfaan reminds me of Maurice. I don’t think Guyanese ever imagined that they would have seen a leader like Irfaan Ali.
What Dr. Ali has done, is that he has taken the phenomenal capacity of British West Indian politicians to lose themselves among the masses, to emerge as someone who can be trusted, who can be accessible, and who will listen and try to deliver to a higher level.
There is an inviting lightness in the character of British West Indian politicians that set them apart from all others in the entire world. I think if there is anything the British West Indies has produced (I am not sure VS. Naipaul would see that as an accomplishment) is a species of politicians that is endowed with an ordinariness that is mysteriously attractive.
In this context, Forbes Burnham should be mentioned. He was definitely a man who could emerge from the halls of power and descend into the dancehall and entertain you, and when the song is over, he has won you over. More than Seaga in Jamaica, Gairy in Grenada, Burnham in Guyana and Ralph Gonzalves in St. Vincent, Bishop in Grenada, Irfaan Ali in Guyana has taken the ordinariness of power to the people.
It is said that politicians love the trappings of power but we can redefine power or deconstruct it in the context of the personality of Ali in Guyana. Irfaan Ali enjoys the trappings of power but only when that power is outside his office and in the streets where he can mingle with people and listen to their requests.
I have never seen a ruling politician that has moved his office from the imposing structure that such offices are normally housed in and has taken it into the hallways and fields of a country.
He reminds me of Maurice Bishop. But there is one huge difference between the two Caribbean giants.
Maurice was a marauding escapist who loved la dolce vita. It never detracted him though from serving the people of Grenada. Ali is a practicing Muslim that avoids those mundane enjoyments because I think he feels he has no time for such moments. I met him at the CIOG during Ramadan and he told me for the day before and on the same day, he hardly slept. Who needs sleep when you have the people to comfort you?
