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Nov 12, 2010 Editorial

Recently, Guyanese Dr Perry Mars, currently a professor in Wayne State University’s Department of Africana Studies (USA), was interviewed about his take on recent Guyanese political development by the left-leaning “In these Times”. It might be of interest to consider the views of a respected and concerned Guyanese academic who has reflected deeply about our problems for the past several decades.
Asked about the role of the leaders in our ethnic politics, Prof Mars opined, “Neither Burnham nor Jagan could escape culpability in this ethnic degeneration of Guyana’s politics; Burnham’s collaboration with the British against Jagan at that critical historical point in time was very destructive to the national efforts. But at the same time Jagan’s equal obsession with his supposed right to power – a supposition born of what he regarded as his being “cheated” of electoral victory every time he lost an election – a supposition no doubt also based on his belief in having a legitimate right to the East Indian majority vote in the country—also explains his drift toward ethnic-based and polarized politics in the country…”
On the possibilities for our Guyanese future, Dr Mars expresses hope, “The continuous and often violent political and ethnic conflict over the years since the 1960s, particularly since the post-Burnham/Jagan era, has already spawned a crisis of democratic politics and so-called “good governance” in the country. Yet more troubling for the country in the post-Buxton era is the continuing anarchistic-criminalized armed violence among youths in a multiplicity of poor communities, in confrontation with the military impunity (and shoot-to-kill-suspects mentality) cultivated by the armed forces and the state.
Equally disturbing is the emergence of what could be described as a conflict economy in which both criminal and legitimate commercial and business interests emerge and coalesce, and which benefit from the deadly conflicts that feed into the drug trade, money laundering, gun-running, and smuggling including trafficking in people.
Is there any light at the end of this bleak tunnel? A few possible optimistic scenarios seem to be unfolding. The first glimpse of hope resides within the very bosom of both major parties. The existing leadership challenges and dissent within both PPP and PNC camps threw up some very capable individuals who would seem to be outside the corruption net, tend to be relatively independent and universal in outlook, and seem to be seriously interested in bridging the ethnic divide, favouring collaboration across ethnic lines for the good of the country as a whole.
But perhaps the most encouraging development, in terms of lifting Guyana out of its leadership doldrums, is what has been happening within the Guyana labour movement. Here we see stirrings of visionary and bold leadership. The PPP-affiliated sugar workers union (GAWU), which is fighting for better wages and working conditions against the PPP-controlled sugar company, came out in April 2010 in open support for the Afro-Guyanese bauxite workers in their strike and struggle against a foreign union-busting corporation which is apparently protected by the PPP government.
Here we see a ray of hope for the future, particularly if inter-ethnic collaboration and cooperation is realized at the working-class organizational levels as a precursor to stimulating similar developments at the political party and government levels, and eventually reaching all sections of the Guyanese society.
In this respect, GAWU would seem to be upholding Jagan’s strong pro-working class objectives as against both state and global interventionist policies, which work against workers’ interests, rights and solidarity.
But whatever future group or party emerges as the popularly and democratically accepted group to govern Guyana, a totally new political and social agenda focusing on shared development needs to be pursued. Official statistics indicate that the poverty rate varies along ethnic lines, with 87 percent and 43 percent of Amerindians and Afro-Guyanese, respectively, as compared with 33 percent of East Indians, living below the poverty line. Shared development — by which I mean the crafting of deliberate policy to [help] poorer communities and disadvantaged groups — will mean the definitive corrective to this imbalance.”

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