Will Blacks continue supporting AFC under Ramjattan?

Mar 09, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Dr Henry Jeffrey, a former PNC member turned PPP Cabinet Minister  writing in the KN, 2-10-11 under the headline “PNC now the most democratic political party in Guyana”  reveals much as a PNC ministerial hopeful now that he is no longer with the PPP.
Give Dr Jeffrey credit where it is due. The PNC candidate selection process was indeed more democratic than that of the PPP notwithstanding the suspicious count which confirmed Mr David Granger.
Contrast this to the uncertainty in the ruling PPP where a lame duck President seeks to ramrod his candidate, Mr Donald Ramotar, who has alienated the party’s sugar worker base.
President Jagdeo’s support for public voting instead of the usual democratic secret ballot is nothing short of amazing.  The ruling party apparently lacks decisiveness as it ironically still publicly bickers about the secret balloting process when for 28 years in opposition it complained about rigging and the absence of free and fair elections.
Added to this is the possibility that its most popular grass roots candidate, Mr Moses Nagamootoo, is an automatic loser even before the selection starts.
Would the rumor that he may be named as a Vice President make a difference instead of holding a party congress to reenergize its base? Talk of elevating Mr Ramotar to the Cabinet with him dropping out of the Presidential race to preserve his loyal service to the PPP has set political circles abuzz.
I want to compliment Dr Jeffrey on his manners. When he writes he is extremely polite, does not have an abrasive style and tries not to personally offend. But I wonder if this is all art and cunning.
What is a shocker is Dr Jeffrey’s nowadays interpretation that “Mr Forbes Burnham did not become an authoritarian as a result of the presidential system, quite the opposite! What made Burnham a dictator was his consistent rigging of the elections, which allowed him to totally disregard the electorate.”
So where did Mr Burnham’s proclivity for dictatorship/authoritarianism originate? Was it natural or did he sharpen it with his lawyers’ training or was he just a ‘victim” of circumstances i.e. he was swept along by the river (Jagans) currents?
Indeed what did make Mr Burnham a dictator? To his credit Mr Burnham earned himself quite a reputation as a talented intellectual you know. In Linden he once boasted to his supporters that they did not put him in power, that his success was due to his brains.
What’s really disturbing is Dr Jeffrey’s  public proclamation that there “is the existence of a stable ethnic majority, which again short-circuits the democratic process.”
Really Dr Jeffrey? Isn’t  this attitudinal mindset symptomatic  of some, not all, in our African community that the Indian presence is untenable in Guyana and that they are undemocratic by behaviour?
That their religion and culture must be changed to confirm to other than  what it is?
Dr Jeffrey’s must explain how “the existence of a stable ethnic majority … short circuits the democratic process.” Are such criticisms of Indians justified because somehow their numbers and cultural traditions make them a guilty race and are sufficient valid reasons to deny them democratic and equal human rights?
Historically Indians and blacks in Guyana have voted for the PPP and the PNC with
Portuguese, Indians, blacks and Amerindians voting for the UF.
Yet Indians have always been blamed and portrayed as lacking political maturity  in not thinking  outside their voting habits.
The PPP has been forever blamed for exploiting this trend every election as if that party’s base is inconsequently non working class.
Yet equal acknowledgement is not made that the PNC also follows an appeal to race, does the same thing but they are nevertheless innocent and not culpable.
It is conveniently forgotten that Indians flocked to the WPA and revered its  African Guyanese  leader Dr Walter Rodney.
Wasn’t this a demonstration of political maturity in moving from the supposedly ethnic PPP for a multiracial WPA head by a black man? Yet some blacks have sought expropriation of Dr Rodney’s legacy as exclusively black in direct contradiction to his following and personal Guyanese history.
How does Dr Jeffrey’s prejudicial statement that Indians short circuit the democratic process, reconcile with these historical facts? Who can deny the massive Indian adoration of Dr Rodney?
Even Sir Shridath Ramphal has ironically joined the bandwagon in delivering a Rodney memorial lecture.
Now that the AFC’s Presidential candidate is Mr Khemraj Ramjattan, an Indian, it will be interesting to see if blacks demonstrate a political maturity  to which they have habitually expected Indians to  conform.
Or will blacks flip flop and ease their way back into the PNC now that that party has installed priority in man of war as its Presidential standard bearer? Will blacks support of the AFC remain stable or increase from its 6 to 18 seats with combined black, Indian and other support  with Mr Ramjattan as its leader?
Would the AFC be able to capitalize on mass Indian dissatisfaction with the PPP due to Mr Ramotar’s folly?
This 2011 elections with the third party AFC with its unique history will be the litmus test as to which ethnic group is demonstrative of ethnic bloc voting.
Either blacks remain with the AFC with its Indian Presidential candidate or demonstrate otherwise.
For sure Indian voting pattern has not always been exclusively PPP as the evidence has shown in their affiliation with the Portuguese-led UF and the African led Rodney WPA. They have not short circuited the democratic process contrary to Dr Jeffrey’s claims. Rather they have enhanced it.
Obviously Guyana’s ethnic/racial problems are not just going away by wishful thinking or a patchwork quilt of sincere individuals every five years during elections. The WPA is dead and the AFC’s fate will be known soon.
After the coordinated attacks on Indians in all the elections between 1992 and 2006 why is there is not a genuine fear of reoccurrence which begs resolution?
The solutions so far is pursuance of Mr Eusi Kwayana’s partitions plan or the federated system which allows each racial groups to govern itself independently,while still living together as one giant federated family.
Black people will be able to govern themselves free of marginalization and economic depravity and anyone will be still be free to choose where they want to live. Coalitions, big tents and power sharing are all temporary solutions to a historical problem. They simply will not work.
For too long Guyana has been touted as the breadbasket of the Caribbean without all being equally productive. Who is going to motivate youths, both Indian and black, and others to reenter agriculture en masse?
Attitudinal mindsets such as Dr Jeffery’s  about Indians disrupting democracy cannot be acceptable. It makes them targets for attacks and justifies such behaviour. Such black attitudes are simply not going away.
Historically Indians have been fearful that Guyana’s armed forces would not be vigilant in protecting them as Guyanese because of its ethnic imbalance. Would it fall prey to Mr Granger’s ambitions for political power?
We need urgent solutions to these pressing problems where all can live in peace and harmony.
Come the 2011 general elections, if there is violence, Indians will be targeted for attacks. Dr Jeffrey will be held responsible for any such eventualities.
Vassan Ramracha

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