Ruling party drops left-wing tag from its constitution

GEORGETOWN (CMC):

The ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) ended its 32nd Congress on Sunday with the party deciding on removing the Marxism-Leninism and socialism tag that underlined its political philosophy for years.

In addition, the party also re-elected President Dr Irfaan Ali as its leader, with Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo retaining the position of general secretary.

Both men secured the highest number of votes at the elections for the Central Executive Committee, with Ali polling 2,308 votes, followed by Jagdeo with 2,257 votes.

Speaking at news conference, Jagdeo defended the decision of the party to remove the Marxism-Leninism and socialism from the party’s constitution, telling reporters that with the Cold War having ended, ideologies mean little to party supporters.

Jagdeo said that the time had come to bring the constitution in line with international economic realities.

“We had long moved away, in practice, from the Marxism-Leninism and the socialism of a different era. Now, our constitution has been brought in line with the practice of the government,” said Jagdeo, a Russian-trained economist.

The historically left-wing PPP is unabashed about its pro-private sector posture and regards the United States and the United Kingdom as its major trading and security sector partners, with Jagdeo saying that the changes would aid in giving the party a greater standing internationally.

“The world has moved on from the Cold War era, from the era of ‘isms’. So in that sense, we are bringing our constitution more in line with the prevailing ideology in the world where you do have parties and countries that practise working-class ideologies or philosophies, or are guided by those without having to mention an ‘ism’ behind them,” Jagdeo said.

He told reporters, instead, they are driven by pro-poor and pro-working-class policies, but do not contradict the creation of wealth by the private sector.

But he defended the PPP’s decision to retain democratic centralism, saying it was akin to the work of a company’s board of directors, where they discuss issues and arrive at agreed decisions with which all of them must comply.

Jagdeo said that after a prolonged debate, those ideological and theoretical references were expunged from their party’s constitution by delegates who recognised that those ‘isms’ did not matter to them.

“That is really the reality of Guyana today. If you talk to our membership, many that came in here, they don’t even know about Marxism-Leninism members of the party.

“Many young people you talk to today, they don’t know about that; and then the constitution of the party said we had to teach them about Marxism-Leninism, instead of teaching them about our history, our own struggles, our own achievements, so that they can propagate the party,” he said.

Jagdeo said the party’s ideological institution, Accabre College, would be transformed into teaching party members about party history, struggle and achievements.

“Accabre, in the past, it was a bit more ideological. So now we can strip it of the ideology, focus on the party, the things I mentioned – our core philosophy, our history – but also focus on leadership training for these people, because we want the next generation of leaders to take over, basically, or lead the party in the future,” he said.

The elections and the Congress came as the party prepares for the 2025 general and regional elections.