PPP supported the PNC after rigged 1973 elections

Oct 14, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
A storm in a tea cup is being raised by some PPP supporters over the announcement that Brigadier David Granger is interested in being the PNCR’s presidential candidate in the 2011 general elections. The tempest is the elections of 1973 and the role the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) played.
Some even go so far as to hold Brigadier Granger responsible although he was just a Major then and not in command of the GDF. In any case it was not the GDF that rigged the elections. It was the PNC, and as I will show below the PPP was eager to hop into bed with the PNC after the elections. Whilst it is true that the 1973 elections were massively rigged with the GDF being a principal actor, that event occurred 37 years ago and it should now be juxtaposed with the elections held under the PPP regime in 1997,2001, and 2006 and examined.
The PNC rigged elections because its African support base was insufficient to win a free and fair election. The PPP’s Indian base was large enough to guarantee the PPP victory in elections, so there was no need to rig as the PNC did. However, the PPP had to ensure that Indians vote en bloc for it and to do so the party has consistently resorted to capitalizing on Indian fear of the African. It has done so by whipping up racial hysteria at the bottom houses. In addition wanton crime waves against Indians seemed to conveniently occur at election time thus causing Indians to huddle around the PPP. In its uninterrupted 18-year reign the PPP has done nothing to allay Indian fears because it needs Indians to live in fear of Africans. It is an election tool for the PPP.
With the PPP resorting to racial fear to concretise its Indian votes, one cannot honestly say that the elections under the PPP reign were free and fair since Indians were not free from fear and voted PPP out of fear. So it is highly hypocritical to cry foul when the PNC rigged but the PPP uses racial fear to ensure electoral victory. And what of the Jagans’ rigging of the 1962 congress to deny Balram Singh Rai the chairmanship of the party? Isn’t this where the PNC learnt of election rigging? The PPP was the first party to engage in election rigging so it should not berate the PNC for rigging national elections. The Guyanese society has legitimacy in demanding justice for the rigged elections but not the PPP.  As Jesus said, “first take the beam out of thy eye.” What is even more shameful is the role of the PPP after the “Great Rig of 1973.”
Immediately after the 1973 elections the PPP boycotted parliament and called for civil disobedience. In 1974 the PNC announced it would embark on the socialist path of development. In 1975 the PPP acting on orders from the Communist Party of Cuba declared Critical Support for the PNC. In 1977 it proposed to form a National Front Government with the PNC and called the 135-day sugar strike to back its proposal. After the PNC rigged the 1978 referendum the PPP continued with its campaign to merge with the PNC. Even after the assassination of Walter Rodney and the rigged election of 1980 the PPP started secret power sharing negotiations with the PNC, even as it remained a member of the opposition grouping the PCD. This clearly shows that the PPP were not interested in elections as a tool of democracy, but as a means to obtain power. How do we further know the PPP did not care for democracy?
We have to look at what countries the PPP supported. It was rabidly pro communist in its ideology and supported communist dictatorships every where. It supported Russian military intervention in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan to prop up communist dictatorships. The PPP was fanatically Marxist Leninist. In such countries elections are not held to elect the Government. The communist party rules by unrestrained suppression of the people. That is communism.
And so I ask PPP supporters how can a devout communist party like the PPP want a socialist party like the PNC to hold free and fair elections? It shows that the PPP leadership was intellectually bankrupt.
It was promulgating an ideology that did not hold elections yet on the other hand it was asking a proponent of that ideology to hold not just elections, but a free and fair one at that so that it could replace that party in power!!
Well eventually the PNC under President Hoyte held a free and fair election in 1992 which the PPP won. But has its rule being better than the PNC’s?
Let’s see in the year 2010 Guyana still has only one radio station and it is state owned but controlled by the ruling PPP.  One TV station was arbitrarily closed down for six months for reporting unfavourably on the Government. The two independent dailies have had Government ads withdrawn from them. Journalists are attacked on the street. The parliament is a rubber stamp. The President still enjoys dictatorial powers granted by Burnham’s 1980 constitution. Independent labour unions are harassed. Dissenting judges and AGs have their pension withheld. Extra judicial killings are the order of the day. Multiple criminal gangs have now replaced those of the PNC era. The Government can dole out billions of dollars without parliamentary approval. There is no ombudsman. Inquest and inquiries into killings are not held. What organisations the regime cannot control it destroys.
This reads just like the pre Hoyte era of the PNC. Oh sorry I don’t mean to insult the PPP regime. I almost forgot to mention the proliferation of the narco trade. Well I guess that puts the PPP ahead of the PNC on poor performance.
I knew the PPP can out do the Burnham era PNC any day. So please PPP apologists stop harping on the ills of the PNC and its rigged elections. First put your house in order. The PPP has proven itself to be worse than the PNC.
The longer the PPP rules the least worse the PNC looks. At least the PNC has taken the first step in transforming itself by at least considering Brigadier Granger as its presidential candidate. When will the PPP start democratizing itself?
Malcolm Harripaul

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