PLAYING FOR THE SAME TEAM

Nov 23, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Karl Marx said a long time ago that the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class. This is the class that controls political power in any country and exercises influence over the functions of the State and the government.
The Peoples Progressive Party won the 1992 elections but real power has always been in the hands of a small elite group of persons, generally invisible to the public and lying outside of the political parties in Guyana. This group is the one which has over the years exercised power over the political elites in the political directorate so much so that today this class has co-opted the government. Karl Marx has been vindicated even at the end of history; the ruling class is not the political rulers of Guyana but the economic czars on whose behalf the political elites act.
Right now in Guyana there are billionaires. They are awash with money. They have made their money despite the problems in the global and domestic economy. They make money because they have friends in the right places and influence where it matters.
The members of this cabal have their money both inside and outside of Guyana and they live the good life because despite them not being in political office, despite their invisible status, they have tremendous influence in Guyana.
It is suspected that behind this third- term campaign that is being waged is this powerful economic class. It is further suspected that the members of this class genuinely know that there is no way to surmount the constitutional and other hurdles to achieve the goal of a third term for President Jagdeo. So why then are they engaging in this wasted effort of printing flyers, buttons, erecting billboards and producing advertisements calling for a third term for President Jagdeo?
The first reason is that campaigning for a third term is a way of showing appreciation to a leader under whose government they have done very well. What better way to show appreciation than to make the leader believe that there is a widespread support for him to continue in office, to have him feel that he is indispensible to the future of this country and that he cannot be easily replaced? What better way to show appreciation by making him believe that he is God’s Gift to Guyana.
The second reason for the third term campaign is that despite most of the investments of this class being protected by binding agreements and legislation, the history of backward Third World countries is as such that the ruling class always need to have the support and favor of the political bosses so as to ensure that they are not vulnerable as they were in the past when Burnham turned on the powerful business and landed classes of Guyana and sent them into economic obscurity.
In agitating for a third term for President Jagdeo, the ruling economic class is attempting to secure some insurance against actions of any future government which can undermine the security of their investments right now in Guyana.
In this respect the present campaign is a means of demonstrating the sort of influence that can be waged when money, power and influence come together behind an initiative. It is also a way of showing loyalty before they turn with the tide and throw their support behind the next person who is seen as becoming the PPP’s Presidential candidate.
The ruling classes will court whoever becomes the President of Guyana. But why court an incoming leader when one can be made? Why take a chance and hope to control whoever becomes the next President of Guyana when with influence and power at its disposal, the present economic elites in Guyana can put forward a leader of their liking?
What we have taking place is a show of power and influence, a reminder to those who are aspiring to office that becoming President cannot be done behind their backs and isolated from accommodating the interests of the powerful economic elite who over the past three years have spread their wings in Guyana and accumulated untold wealth and unbridled influence over the political elite of this country.
It was no different under Cheddi. As strong-willed as he was, he too made an accommodation with the economic class in Guyana. It was not, as has been suggested that he made a deal with the Americans to have a civic component in the government. It was that the Americans were in league with this powerful class which had already begun to exercise control under the Hoyte administration.
It was this business class, with the backings of the Americans and certain reactionary organizations and political parties in the opposition, who split the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy.
It was a group of businessmen who got Cheddi to retreat on his commitment for a joint slate which would have seen Clive Thomas as the Prime Ministerial candidate. They made it clear that Thomas was too leftist and it was them that forced the PPP to join hands with GUARD.
The Americans may have won with this decision; they may have caused the left to be isolated, but in the end it was the powerful economic class that pulled the strings. Today the players may have changed; new czars may have arisen, but it is the same team that is calling the shots.

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