Civil society, anyone?

May 09, 2012 Editorial

For the last couple of decades there has been a steady lamentation that ‘civil society’ is not standing up to be counted in our country. What exactly is the ‘civil society’ creature?
Classically defined as those institutions outside the state, civil society differed from the family in its reach and scope and from the market in its actuating spirit of volunteerism. The work of charities, faith-based organisations – such as the Salvation Army – trade unions, etc., rose from this perspective. These organisations sought to ameliorate objectionable social conditions of one form or another.
Four decades ago, in many parts of the world, but mainly behind the Iron Curtain, these organisations were joined by a new affiliate – the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). They defined, as part of their social mission, a resistance to dictatorial or authoritarian regimes. Their organisers reasoned that the nature of the political regime – especially as it had to do with the democratic rights available to the citizenry – was inextricably linked to the social conditions that the people had to live under. Maybe not totally coincidental, these NGOs received most of their funding from foreign (read, western) sources. The majority of the assorted “Coloured Revolutions” in eastern Europe –” were engendered through key support from these NGOs.
In Guyana, interestingly enough, agitation for improvement of the social conditions of most of the populace – who were all pretty much all “working class” – came out of the trade union movement – a first generation ‘civil society’ grouping. Practically all of our early politicians were graduates of that movement. In the sixties, foreign support for regime change here was funnelled through the trade union movement. Their nexus with politics and political change was kept alive into the eighties, when the NGO phenomenon blossomed across the globe.
Sections of our trade union movement were in the forefront of the struggle for political reform in the late seventies and the eighties and were joined by many other civil society organisations such as the Bar Association. Even High School students joined the fray. This era has to be the heyday of civil society involvement in Guyanese political activism – which ended in regime change in 1992.
During the budget debate, once again there were expressions of deep disappointment from some quarters for more ‘civil society activism’. The question as to why this has not occurred is an interesting one and begs for some sort of explanation.
Is it, as a supporter of the government might posit, the accusations of bad governance, much less that of “dictatorship”, is so seriously off base that even the foreign-funded (and influenced) NGOs have not taken up cudgels on behalf of the critics? Of course, the corollary to that riposte would be that the present regime is not so unacceptable to the international guardians of democracy that the fervent entreaties from the government’s bête noirs would be answered in the affirmative.
A detractor of the status quo may argue that the present regime has worked assiduously to depoliticise civil society from the moment they assumed office, with the result that the surviving organisations have not only been defenestrated but are seriously anaemic. They could point, for instance, to the vanguard politically-conscious civil society grouping in our country – the trade union movement – and describe how though a variety of stratagems and their own complicity, they have been brought to heel.
But all of this begs the question that if political parties are recognised and given the space to articulate the concerns of all citizens – be they social, economic or cultural – within a polity that guarantees free and fair elections, why should civil society still be expected to enter the political realm? Those who complained that the political system was ossified and not receptive to change have had their concerns addressed by the operation of the same criticised system, last November.
The bottom line is that we should strive to ensure that our political institutions adhere to the framework that has been outlined in the constitution. Our input is through the ballot box.