The PPP is not multi-ethnic, multi-racial or cross-racial

Jul 21, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In my humble opinion, the PPP post-1954 has always been a race-based, race-driven, uni-racial and non-multiethnic party. Having said this, please permit me to respond to the letter submitted by Arnold Sanasie titled “PPP/C has always been Multi Ethnic in its Composition” (Kaieteur News, July 17, 2011).
Mr. Sanasie shockingly and egregiously accuses me of playing the race card. I believe there are laws against these kinds of slanderous accusations in Guyana.
However, I do not expect differently from Mr. Sanasie. Accusing someone of race-mongering is the oldest psychological response of those trapped in and dominated by it.
Mr. Sanasie’s problem stems from a letter I wrote titled “The results of the 2006 election do not prove the PPP’s cross-racial appeal” (Stabroek News, July 14, 2011).
I am going to lay out the facts I presented in my previous letter and allow the public to draw its conclusions. Sanasie makes a number of claims.
Firstly, he claims the PPP has always been multi-ethnic in composition. Secondly, he argues the PPP is embraced by voters of all ethnicities.
Thirdly, he claims “the PPP has gained a *significant* amount of crossover votes since winning the hearts and minds of the people in 1992.” Fourthly, he claims that the “PPP’s African and Amerindian support base continues to increase at the expense of the PNC and other fledgling parties.” Fifthly,
Sanasie argues that the composition of the hierarchy of the party and government drives cross-racial support for the PPP.
Let us examine these claims by Sanasie. First, Sanasie is telling a bold lie when he contends that the PPP has always been a multiethnic in composition. Since 1954, the PPP has been a predominantly Indian party.
The party lost its multi-ethnic flavour then and never regained it. If Sanasie conducts a poll of the thousands of PPP card-carrying members in Guyana, he will find the staggering majority of those are Indians. For Sanasie to claim the PPP’s multi-ethnicity in composition is to carry a joke too far.
Second, it is preposterous to assert with a straight face that because minuscule numbers of non-Indian ethnicities vote for the PPP, it is evidence of the PPP’s ‘embrace’ by voters of all races. That assertion cannot even stand up on a horse.
Third, where is this significant number of crossover votes that the PPP is talking about? After the massive Indian vote and the sizeable Indian-Mixed Race votes, where is this significant crossover vote that only Sanasie seems to know about?
Is Sanasie trying to tell us that the PPP’s usual 6% to 10% non-Indian vote for the past 19 years is proof of ‘significant’ crossover votes?
Fourth, I can unequivocally state that the PPP’s African base has not grown after its 19 years of misconduct. Sanasie must extricate that fiction from his head. The PPP’s Amerindian vote base has increased after an outlandish vote-buying spree and after creating a system that has controls Amerindians, creates a dependency syndrome and dominates every aspect of their lives. The Amerindian vote the PPP has obtained since 1992 is a voting demographic that usually did not vote.
Fifth, is Sanasie trying to tell us that the old Burnhamite trick of putting Indian faces in the hierarchy of an African-dominated party and government is evidence of cross-racial and multiracial embrace and support? Switch Ranji Chandisingh with Robeson Benn, Sonny Ramphal with Sam Hinds, Vincent Teekah with Jennifer Westford and Mohamed Shahabuddeen with Roger Luncheon and you get the picture.
Putting some African or Amerindian faces in government or in the party hierarchy is not multi-racialism, multi-ethnicity or cross-racial support. It is a sham. Little islands in a sea cannot alter the waves, the tides and the currents.
Sanasie should not lie to the Guyanese people. Sanasie and other deluded PPP supporters need to wake up and start telling the truth. The PNC or APNU supporters masquerading this born-again holier-than-thou attitude would do well to follow this advice. The PPP and PNC must stop this comedic adventure of promoting themselves as multi-racial and cross-racial.
The PPP and PNC’s legacy of Aphan Jhaat politics has split this country apart. Time for a change. Time for PPP and PNC apologists like Arnold Sanasie to stop the lies. To start telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
The PPP is not multi-ethnic, multi-racial or cross-racial. It has never been and will never be as long as it is organized in its current incarnation. Now that Donald Ramotar is its latest appointee, expect nothing to change.
M. Maxwell

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