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Replicating ‘Egypt in Guyana’ against the new opposition

Feb 19, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
Some elements of the new opposition in Guyana believe that authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa are similar to the political system in this country. And the recent successful challenges to the authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt provide fodder to the desires of this new opposition.
The international Democracy Index in 2010 ranked Egypt’s democracy poorly at 138 out of 167 countries; and it ranked democracy in Tunisia also poorly at 144 out of 167 countries. Notwithstanding that Guyana has a fragile democracy; it received a better ranking than Egypt and Tunisia at 75 out of 167 countries. Guyana performs well on electoral process and pluralism, and on civil liberties. We cannot say the same for Egypt and Tunisia because Guyana has free and fair elections, and protects fundamental rights, which are not the case in Egypt and Tunisia.
Democracy, nevertheless, has to do with more than casting ballots at elections. Democracy involves ‘election competitiveness’ and ‘inclusiveness’. And the PPP/C Government has a history of promoting political inclusiveness vis-à-vis the former Joint Committees, constitutional amendments, and a responsible and constitutional opposition. The constitution requires statutory and competing elections every five years, with multiparty involvement or electoral pluralism. There is more I want to say about Guyana’s fragile democracy, but I will do so at another time.
Guyana is not faultless; but yet unlikely comparisons with the Middle East situation abound; conveniently, to promote political wannabes’ electoral aspirations within the context of a fragile democracy.
Nonetheless, there is sufficient evidence to show that a government can maintain its democratic gains through the people’s understanding and acceptance of that government’s legal status. For this reason, we need to consolidate this country’s fragile democracy through nonstop development and modernization.
Development would generate greater human capital, where people would have the capacity to enhance their economic and political rights, and where the people would take on new norms and values consistent with further developing this fragile democracy.
Right now, the government has a new development project called the One Laptop per Family (OLPF) project. Through this project, the government will empower people by distributing laptops to 90,000 poor families nationwide, to bridge the information technology divide that prevails between Guyana and the rest of the world.
In addition, an important component of social and economic inequality relates to unbalanced income distribution. For poor families in this regard, the OLPF could be a contributory factor to their quality of life. And the ill-generated, media-led contentions involving this Laptop project are not substantial enough to erase the potency of this innovative project.
Let me reiterate some things I said some time ago. In 1992, the PPP/C Administration inherited a callous legacy from the authoritarian People’s National Congress regime; today, the PPP/C continues to face challenges, some external, in its drive to consolidate democracy in Guyana because of some enduring pre-1992 dictatorial traditions, beliefs, and values, unsuitable to a functioning democracy.
Another false piety is some commentators’ invariable distortions of Guyana’s development, and their persistent efforts to weaken the legitimacy of this PPP/C Government; their goal is political instability.
And these commentators delude themselves into thinking that they could emboss a picture of instability on the local, regional, and international image of Guyana. Nevertheless, President Bharrat Jagdeo’s incisive international interventions and his international status today would obliterate the silly distortionists’ propaganda.
Given these unvarying distortions that impede the consolidation of democracy, any act of replicating ‘an Egypt in Guyana’, so to speak, therefore, should be directed toward the new opposition.
Prem Misir

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