The objective is always to destroy the other side

Jun 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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I read a letter by Dr. Henry Jeffrey in the June 8th edition of the Stabroek News in which in his analysis of Guyanese politics, he wrote; “I know of no politician who wants our roads, schools, hospitals, education, crime prevention, general administration and all else to be under-funded and in disrepair.” It is impossible at the psychological level to ascertain if this is dishonest politics, a genuine evaluation or myopia by this former Minister. Henry Jeffrey’s background could lead the reader to decide which one of these labels best suits him.

Dr. Jeffrey was an ideologue in the administration of the Forbes Burnham. He spent sixteen years in the PPP Government from 1992-2009. Since his voluntary resignation or forced exit from the PPP Government, he has written quite a number of letters in the newspapers. Many persons feel Dr. Jeffrey is aiming for a relationship with any third party or even a new-styled PNC so that he can resuscitate his political career in the event of a non-PPP victory in 2011. His letters seems to be the avenue he has chosen. His latest missive is bound to raise suspicion not only on his political maneuverability but his capacity to objectively assess the PNC and PPP and the political culture that they embrace, an attitude that is identical in both of them.
One suspects that in arriving at his conclusion that none of the politicians of the PNC and the PNC would want to see Guyana fall down, Dr. Jeffrey is playing his cards safely. He is keeping an eye on how things shape up in 2011 because after all, his problem has not been with the PNC but with Hoyte, not with the PPP but with Jagdeo.

In declaring that none of our past and present rulers would want to see things fall apart, Dr. Jeffrey has washed away fifty-five years of internecine rivalry between two parties whose essential substance lies in ethnic maximization. In this nightmare of power politics, one side’s raison d’être is to defeat its opponent. Its opponent is of another ethnic make-up. This zero-sum game has been played out in the most destructive way. Most Guyanese, with a level head in understanding the rivalry between the PNC and PPP the past fifty years, have an elementary understanding that the game has always resulted in ethnic causalities.

The PNC was in power for 28 years but never contemplated electricity for Leguan, an Indian populated, rice-growing area. Shortly after the PPP came into power, the electrification of Leguan took place. Any competent engineer would tell you that the most appropriate location for the Berbice Bridge in every sense –economic, technological etc – is New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam is a traditional PNC area that is predominantly African and normally votes against the PPP. In none of the elections since 1992, has the PPP won a majority in New Amsterdam. The by-passing of the capital of Berbice for the location of the bridge was driven by pure realpolitik. But the result is disastrous. New Amsterdam’s economy will suffer serious decline.

These are just two examples of how the political culture of the PNC and PPP has created a long spell of devastation. I could go on to cite situations in which East Indian districts were deliberately neglected by the PNC. The shoe is on the other foot now. An Indian Government is targeting the economy of African Guyanese and the analysts. Most political observers believe that this cancer of tit for tat vitiated Guyana’s livelihood under the PNC Government and at the moment it has impaired Guyana’s vitality since 1992. Without wanting to appear harsh on Dr. Jeffrey, we must ask where he was living when Burnham’s anti-Indian brashness had chased out Indians from Guyana. How could Burnham have discriminated against Indians without realizing that it would have dented Guyana’s economy?
Where is Dr. Jeffrey presently living when African-Guyanese groups, particularly the TUC, have documented a systematic downgrading of the African role in the Guyanese economy by the PPP Government? Surely, Dr. Jeffrey cannot tell us that the perpetrators don’t know that such ethnic domination is tantamount to disaster.

At a psychic level, no politician wants to demolish his/her country’s physical infrastructure, its social structure and its economy. But given the way the PNC and PPP evolved, that is what they have been doing the past half of a century. If this country is ever going to move forward, only two courses are possible. The disappearance of both the PPP and PNC thus the death of the destructive culture, or a national government where there would be no reason to be destructive.

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