In politics, the loser guarantees legitimacy for the winner

Nov 18, 2008 Letters

Dear Editor,
It’s the loser who guarantees the winner’s legitimacy. This is the prerequisite currency for all forms of leadership.

Here, I am responding to Hamley Case’s letter “Inspired by Obama, Guyanese should seize the day.” as published in the newspapers.

In a nutshell, Barack Obama’s success in the U.S. presidential elections sits on the pillars of legitimacy. However, in Guyana the political culture is ripe with the recurrent search for legitimacy; which triggers the insatiable need for blind loyalty, then cronyism, then bullyism, then authoritarian behaviour; and soon everything starts to look familiar to what has existed before.

During Guyana’s 42-year history, only twice has the Guyanese electorate experienced some degree of legitimacy as it relates to leadership and governance.

The first time was during the 1964 coalition between the PNC and the United Force. However, I like to describe that relationship as a collation, which implies a tallying-up of votes, instead of a coalition, which implies an honest mixing of ideas and party planks.

In the end, this relationship was nothing more than the sleight of hand of a three-card hustler. What a pity, because leadership was never quite able to recover from that blunder of judgment.

The second time occurred during the 1992 collation (tallying) between the PPP and the WPA to fight the then Government in power for the instituting of free and fair elections.

After some success, the same thing happened again, and these two political parties involved were up to similar misinterpretations of deliberately not knowing the difference between coalition and collation.

Oh yes, politics in Guyana is a nasty, tricky ordeal which ends up with a very convenient and suspicious relationship of betrayal, to say the least. Here, again, the error in judgment by that 1992 leadership is solely responsible for the distrust in Government today.

On both of these occasions, the political parties involved demonstrated a high level of immaturity in understanding the importance of legitimacy as a prerequisite for good governance.

The securing of real honest-to-goodness legitimacy is the foundation for open and civic cooperation and governance. However, in Guyana, governing is more like playing ‘dolly house’ with the aspirations of the populace.

It is therefore very informative to recognise why a fairly new and ‘green’ politician like Barack Obama has achieved the status of world legitimacy and popularity, as it relates to governing.

First, Hillary Clinton’s bare-knuckle fight with Obama, which ended on the convention floor in Denver with her public acclamation, went a long way in giving him the legitimacy to successfully prepare for the general elections. And yes, my fellow countrymen, that’s how it is done in the professional leagues of democracy.

At this point, a very important truism about most races and competitions must be observed and remembered, because it is generally the loser who anoints the winner with the armour of permanent legitimacy. The winner can never achieve this feat alone by himself.

Just like Hillary Clinton did for Obama during the primaries, John Mc Cain reciprocated similarly on Tuesday night of November 4th by saying, in his concession speech in public, something like, “Senator Obama has been my opponent, but from tonight he is my President.”

Wow! That’s exactly what genuine legitimacy sounds like in reference to the leadership and governance. With this kind of a gale force wind at Obama’s back, uniting a divided country becomes so much easier for leadership.

Unfortunately, the scene in most Guyanese political party apparatus is so rancid with jealousy and envy, and a lack of accountability and transparency, that no leadership can sustain itself without some degree of honest legitimacy.

I am reminded of the fight between Team Alexander and Team Corbin at the last party congress, which, conveniently, never came to competitive fruition on account of party rules and regulations. So, once again, the loser is not allowed to guarantee legitimacy for the winner.

Folks, this is bush-league behaviour that sustains absolutely no form of real, lasting legitimacy. Politics in Guyana is hardly seizing any moments, and needs to grow up quickly.
Cochore Moruka

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In politics, the loser guarantees legitimacy for the winner

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