Politics is not for Sharma

by

Peeping Thom

 

Mr. C. N Sharma

 

Recently, popular television personality Mr. C. N Sharma has been going around the country highlighting areas of discontent. At the end of each visit, he would usually ask his audience whether they would vote for the PPP at the next election.

It is not hard to predict the reaction. The chorus would be a loud “No!” When the same people are asked who they will vote for, the response is also predictable. They all shout, “Sharma!”

Have we not heard this litany before? Have the same thing not been played out in the past only for when election time comes for Guyanese to vote overwhelmingly for either the PNCR or the PPPC? Was Sharma not let down by the electorate at previous elections?

A song played on his channel says that he can take it all. But the little man who pioneered local television and turned the daily problems people face into a popular television staple is saying that all he wants is about twelve seats.

He is not after the Presidency; all he wants is a dozen parliamentary seats.

Sharma wants twelve seats. There was once a man who begged Guyanese to give him one seat. He even boasted how he was the best-looking political candidate.

He never did get that one seat. If Sharma is thinking about twelve seats in parliament he had better think again.

He is not going to win a single seat in the next general election. This is my prediction. Sharma is wasting his time thinking that Guyanese are going to put him into the National Assembly.

Sharma has made a name for himself by highlighting the problems of poor people. Of course at times, he fails to distinguish whose responsibility it is to take care of some of these problems.

The poor state of some streets and drains that fall under Neighborhood Democratic Councils are usually blamed on the government. In cases where regions should be held accountable for the poor state of schools, it is the government that is blamed.

That has always been one of the flaws of the Voice of the People show. Another has been to get comments from those who are being blamed, thereby presenting a more balanced perspective.

Sharma does good work in highlighting the conditions under which poor people live. It is good that he does this but in politicizing these problems, Sharma reduces the importance of the work that he does and limits the effectiveness of his popular show.

Sharma has to understand that the government cannot fix all of the people's problems at one time and he also has to understand the system of local government and how different authorities are responsible for doing different things.

He needs to get all sides of a story and contact the relevant agencies for comments before he airs his episodes of Voice of the People.

But to do these things will reduce the political content of the show, and these shows have become extremely political.

I like to listen to Sharma's Voice of the People Live

Show. It really is very funny. Not that the problems

of the people are funny, but rather the way the host deals with them. Take for example, the sad case of a woman who went on his show to complain about police harassment. The lady explained, “A man lash me.”

Sharma interjected and asked the woman, “What you mean that a man lash you?” The lady explained that a man had lashed her on her foot with a piece of wood.

Now here is a woman's problem being turned to light because of the host's difficulty in initially understanding what the woman was saying.

I do not believe that Sharma will do well in the next election. He has contested elections before and he has been rejected by all but a handful of voters even though he has been for years highlighting the problems of the poor, just as he is doing today.

Somebody needs to have a serious chat with Sharma to let him know that while what he may be doing is good work in highlighting the problems of Guyanese, this does not translate to votes.

Sharma is highly popular as a television personality who shows the suffering and frustration of people. That is his special niche in the country. He has become a household name because of his Justice for All and Voice of the People show.

But Sharma is never going to be a popular choice as a political candidate, and his friends need to try as hard as they can to let him understand this.

They will be doing him a great injustice if they allow him to be humiliated at the next election, which is sure to happen if he contests.

I doubt whether he will be joining any coalition with the PNCR. I cannot see the head of the Justice for All Party wanting to be anything other than a Presidential candidate and this is so unfortunate because he simply cannot win an election, nor can he secure the twelve seats he feels will give him a greater role in managing this country.

I hope his friends talk to him and while they are at it, I hope that they advise him that when callers ask him what he would do if he is elected to power, he should not get worked up and ask them in reply why he should tell them his secret.

People are not going to vote for you if they do not know what you stand for and since it is my belief that not many people are not going to vote for Sharma in any case, the least he can do is announce up-front his detailed plan for this country.

C. N, nobody is going to steal your ideas! You are the one who is wont to remind Guyanese that you had been saying this and you had been saying that a long, long time ago.

So announce your plans and settle down to making your television show as popular as Oprah's. Politics is not for you.