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The process of selecting presidential candidates must be restructured and permanently changed
Apr 24, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
Over the years we have seen the discord between the major political parties and the other parties’ supporters. We have also seen the negative results of the parties’ candidates as the president and as the opposition.
To date these candidates have failed to propel Guyana to sustainable growth. They have failed to infuse a compelling discourse to change the political process, whether they are in or out of presidential office.
They have failed to allay the fears and acts of violence perpetuated on the people of Guyana. Yet, we continue to lend support to these candidates that are, in essence, foisted upon us by the self interested and racially constructed political parties.
Most Guyanese are questioning whether we are incapable of having a more acceptable candidate pool than those that are presented – a candidate that can garner the support of a wide cross section of Guyanese, a candidate that minimizes the effect of race in Guyana’s political arena.
The current selection process, for the best candidate to be president, needs to be improved.
This improvement, however, will never be achieved if we continue to sit back and accept the candidates that are presented to us by the major parties. As a consequence, the process of selecting presidential candidates must be restructured and permanently changed.
Due to the fact that there are only two major parties and a limited candidate pool, some will always be dissatisfied and vote along racial lines. There is reluctance by both of the major parties to present a cross over candidate to be the presidential candidate.
The PNC is dependent on Black support and the PPP is supported by Indians. This truism will not change until both parties vacate the racial posture they adhere to. Such a change is not to be expected when the political atmosphere is given no new impetus.
As such, a change in the way the system is set up must be enhanced with an infusion of independent candidates who owe no political affiliation to any political party and will show no allegiance and compromised principles, for and, to the party.
The two-party structure could be positively impacted if any Guyanese born candidate is allowed to run independently, and free from the encumbrance of party affiliation.
Once it is verified by the courts or some other independent decision making body that a person is qualified, by being a born Guyanese, that person should be allowed to run as a presidential candidate.
The current system is blatantly exclusionary, and restricts some of Guyana’s best thinkers from competing.
A nation that is struggling with a lack of population growth, due to migration, should not continue with the qualifying restrictions imposed on future presidential candidates.
There should be an open field of candidates, where anyone qualified is allowed to run. There should not be a party affiliation as the major qualifying attribute, or some residential adherence that hinders Guyana from obtaining some beneficial ideas; many of these ideas will serve to remove most of the country’s bottlenecks to progress.
This action if taken would help alleviate racial voting, broaden the candidate base, and give the people more say as to whom will be chosen.
If a party’s candidate is chosen then that supports the will of the people, but to have an Indian party selecting an Indian candidate and a Black dominated party selecting a Black candidate is nothing more than a planned result that inherently deceives the Guyanese public and the political process.
There are many Guyanese within the Diaspora who are much more qualified academically and with job experiences, than some of the party’s affiliates, and whose names are being purported as presidential candidates, but these potential candidates are not allowed to run due to some archaic rule about residential living.
These residential restrictions are no more than deliberate exclusions that will serve to promote the chosen party’s candidate and propagate the ‘good old boy network’ of political cronyism and nepotism.
As Guyana continues to suffer from a lack of true leadership, the current mechanism of selecting a presidential candidate should not be maintained.
A renewed selection process would serve to remove Guyana’s political process from the racial voting pattern within which it is mired by allowing any Guyanese born to participate in the process as a presidential candidate.
Patrick Barker
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