The legacy of Winston Murray

Nov 27, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The legacy of Winston Murray still needs a clear definition, still needs to be institutionalized and be made a reality.
Noted Guyanese author, Kean Gibson writes: “I sometimes think Winston Murray took too long to challenge the PNC status quo and to offer his brand of principled politics to the Guyanese people.
Maybe he made his move at the right moment, given the need for a new political culture and fresh political thinking. In fact, I am inclined to believe that Winston Murray has already had an impact on our political culture in a positive way. This will be his lasting legacy. His life must be seen as rich in its contribution to our national life and his entry into presidential politics as a transformative one” (SN Nov. 24th).
Noted journalist and newsweekly publisher, Annan Boodram writes: “No one can doubt that this son of the soil was spearheading true political reform and might have been the architect of a new kind of politics that would have jettisoned ethnic and other divisiveness in favour of collaboration and nationalism. Perhaps he has stirred enough hearts to keep working for a Guyana bereft of ethnic politics”. (SN Nov. 26th).
So what is that legacy? The distinctive feature of Guyanese politics is its unique theory and practice of ethnic politics. For almost 60-years now two ethnic parties PPP and PNC have run the gamut of public life.
Both have followed an unwritten rule that says: only an African can be leader of PNC and only an Indian can be leader of PPP. Both have institutionalized the technique of “window-dressing”: in the case of the PPP, the President will always be Indian, the Prime Minister African. And, even in the event of death, the African PM will not succeed to the Presidency. So institutionalized is the notion of “window-dressing” – it is as if it is written in the party constitution.
Winston Murray, an Indian, after 30-years of distinguished and loyal service to the Afro-ethnic PNC summoned the courage to challenge and overthrow this unwritten racial rule. To me this is Winston’s greatest legacy. Had he lived and succeeded in winning the presidential candidacy of his party, he would have worked to accomplish nothing less than a complete re-invention of the party.
And, create a new multiracial image that would have opened the party to support from all races, particularly the majority Indian group. This idea offers the only potential winning strategy for the opposition parties. Persuading five to six percent of the Indian voting bloc to vote outside their traditional base is all but guaranteed to defeat the Indo-ethnic PPP at the polls.
What we have witnessed in the letter columns of the Independent press in Guyana in the last few years – as exemplified by Gibson’s and Boodram’s – is an overwhelming need and support for a new brand of politics in Guyana. Clearly there is a “changed consciousness” by broad cross-sections of the population to get past and see beyond race. In the PNC itself, there is broad support for the Murray candidacy and the overthrow of the “racial rule” criterion by which its leader must be elected. No small credit is due to Dr. Van West Charles who helped to educate its members and forge that “changed consciousness”.
With Murray’s untimely death, the dreams and hopes he embodied – his legacy – still has to be fought for. His legacy still needs to be fulfilled. If we can identify one man who has the power and influence more than all others to ensure that Winston’s legacy lives, it is the current leader of the PNC, Robert Corbin.
He needs to stand before the assembled Central Executive Committee members and say: “The days of the PNC being perceived as an African party has to come to an end. We live in a multiracial society. Our party’s chances at the polls can only be enhanced if we are perceived as a genuine multiracial party.”
I met Robert Corbin on August 24th at his party’s head office in Sophia to dialogue with him – to talk about the transformation of the PNC into a genuine multiracial party. I wrote in my notes of the conversation: “He is a very likable man. Good listener and asks very thoughtful questions.”
He also said something very revealing and noteworthy about Murray. He said the only reason he got the leadership position was because Murray was out of the country. Had Murray got the job, “it would have been a blessing” for the party and the nation.
It is a very profound and revealing statement. It at once suggested that Corbin does recognise a need for the PNC to transform itself into something else – which only Murray could have offered – both because of his ethnicity and of his many years of loyal, dedicated service to the party. It had been my hope that Corbin would have provided the cues, the reasoning – and even repeat the same statements he made to me – to his central committee members.
Clarissa Rhiel, attorney-at-law and long time member of the PNC, an Indian-Guyanese has been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate. She should be drafted and encouraged to enter the party’s presidential primary contest. She is a natural replacement for the fallen Winston Murray. She has the characteristics and potential to do for the party what Winston would have done, or what war hero, Dwight Eisenhower did for the Republican Party in 1952. In presidential politics you draft a leader who potentially can win the most votes across all constituencies.
A few important post scripts for clarification and disclosure:
(1) A number of writers mischaracterized my visit with Robert Corbin as one in which I asked him to resign; what nerve did I have to do that and not do the same at PPP’s Freedom House. My visit with Corbin was to simply talk about the future transformation of the party. I did not ask him to resign. Mr. Corbin himself said: We should continue the conversation.
(2) I was born and raised in Leguan and am living in U.S. for the last 40 years. Winston Murray is my first cousin whom I met for the first time last August in Georgetown. We share the same grandfather, Thakurpersaud (1884 –1948). My father, Rampersaud (1914 – 2009) and Winston’s mother, Irene (1919 – 1985?) are brother and sister.
(3) I have been calling for the PPP and PNC to elect an African and Indian leader, respectively, as a first step in a process to mitigate the high levels of racial voting, as far back as 1997. Long before I knew that Winston Murray was my cousin.
(4) I believe what passes for democracy in Guyana is not real democracy. It is simply rule by the majority ethnic group.
(5) I believe Winston, had he been elected by his party, and had he lived, he would have put an end to the rule by majority ethnic group – and Guyana would have evolved into a genuine multi-racial democracy.
Kean Gibson and Annan Boodram – and all people of goodwill should start an organised movement to help bring an end to ethnic politics in Guyana. In this way we shall institutionalize and give meaning to the legacy of Winston Murray.
Mike Persaud

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