Using the Diaspora

Mar 14, 2011 Editorial

It is rather pathetic that invariably when general elections roll around, the role of the diaspora rises to the fore. One can only conclude that our political elites are both opportunistic and cynical.
They are quite aware that overseas Guyanese cannot vote, unless they have taken the time to return and register, which few ever do. They invoke the diaspora mainly because they see it as a source of campaign financing.
It wasn’t always like this. From the seventies, the PPP had counted on overseas Guyanese – all ironically located in the much chastised west – to lobby their host governments to protest the rigged elections by the dictatorship back in Guyana. Donations obviously would have been solicited – even the PNC had its overseas groups that were represented at its congresses – but the strategic pressure from the diaspora was considered more important to the PPP.
And the strategy paid off. Cheddi Jagan was the first to acknowledge that without the intervention of key US political figures, from Ted Kennedy to Jimmy Carter, the change of 1992 would not have been possible.
After the PPP was ensconced into office, most assumed that they would follow up on their stated recognition of the diaspora as a source of highly developed and qualified human resource to reverse the depletion that had accompanied the destruction of the pre-1992 economy and society.
As a matter of fact there was a quite significant influx of qualified overseas Guyanese that volunteered their services to the new regime. But within a year or two they would all depart in frustration.
They faced a very deep and entrenched sentiment in the populace – never countered by the government, and some say, encouraged by it – that they were “carpetbaggers”. They had “run away” and were now merely returning home for the benefits. It didn’t matter that by and large most of the returnees had left much more lucrative opportunities abroad.
But the sentiment towards the diaspora was Janus faced: to those that remained abroad and continued sending in the barrels filled with goodies, there was only goodwill. As their success multiplied with the expansion of the American economy, their contributions had also risen.
Even before international financial institutions revealed that diaspora remittances hovered around US$400 million annually – more that sugar and rice and all our other agricultural revenue combined – the politicians had trimmed their sails. The diaspora would now be a source of campaign financing.
As regular as clockwork, they began making their pilgrimages to New York and Toronto – the major diaspora enclaves – once elections were in the air. Nowadays campaigns – including the present one – are not launched in Guyana. The heart of the diaspora is the place to be. We should not be surprised that the PNC presidential hopefuls traipsed over to New York to display their wares.
This is where they knew the money was. If they could not tap into this money they could never hope to compete with the incumbent PPP. Interestingly enough, even though the latter may have enough local sources of funding they still feel compelled to make the foreign foray.
Another party, the small AFC, is so dependent on diaspora money that they have actually committed to dispensing two seats in parliament to their funders. Never mind such seats – assuming they can be garnered – can only be awarded to Guyanese actually resident and registered in Guyana – and on the party’s list of candidates to boot. They have to outbid the other competitors for the greenbacks.
The cynicism of the local politicians – especially the ones in the opposition – can be gleaned from the fact that even though they have routinely denounced the incumbent government as a “dictatorship” that has committed an amazing host of atrocities – ranging from torture to murder – they have not had the integrity to consider the diaspora as more than simply “moneybags” to organise them to lobby their most influential host governments as did the PPP in the past.
All of this is very much a pity since the diaspora can be of so much more help to all of Guyana.

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