There is one group that has everything to gain by changing its voting behaviour

Oct 25, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The PPP and PNC/APNU have failed Guyanese for nearly six decades. They have given us the pain and shame of ethnic politics and race voting.
This chokes Guyana as the two major ethnic groups, Indians and Africans, who according to the 2002 Census comprise 73% of the population vote out of fear, insecurity and mostly blind racial reasons as opposed to voting on issues, values, future-driven ideals and economic considerations.
Racial voting has trapped Guyana into accepting all kinds of disgusting, failed and elitist leadership from failed parties (PPP and PNC/APNU). Racial voting is why the Jagdeoite-controlled PPP could suspend a mandatory PPP party congress and handpick a weak leader like Ramotar and yet still command the support of Indians.
Racial voting is why PNC/APNU supporters, mostly Africans, would vote for a party that has been soundly hammered in five consecutive elections and demonstrates weak opposition tactics. Some would argue that racial voting is why thousands of PNC/APNU supporters who supported the multiracial AFC in 2006 returned to the PNC/APNU in 2011 only to be rudely reminded it is the same PNC dressed up in an APNU frock.
Because of racial voting, crooks, frauds, bandits, agent provocateurs, vagabonds, miscreants, yes-men, soup-drinkers, the corrupt and the criminal can dominate political parties and get away with it. Because these parties are guaranteed of racial votes, they have no incentive to change.
To make matters worse, Indians and Africans are the only two ethnic groups with political movements. The Amerindians and Mixed Races do not have their own political parties. Therefore, these two groups (Indians and Africans) get to dominate the nation’s political landscape and its direction.
How could race voting change? Education and economic development rooted in poverty elimination, which are strong deterrents to ethnic politics, have not arrived to the masses in Guyana. The motivation has to be power and a push to share or influence political power.
In Guyana, political power means economic power. Government controls about two-thirds of the economy. Any deprived ethnic group has to seriously think about its strategy in order to gain power to get a fair share of the pie held and controlled by government.
Africans cannot continue this strategy of supporting the PNC/APNU, as this approach inevitably produces political defeat simply because Indians outnumber Africans, and Africans will always lose to the larger Indian population in a straight race voting contest. Five election defeats by the PNC/APNU have cemented this fact.
While many Indians detest their own PPP hijacked by a corrupt elitist cabal, they detest the PNC/APNU more. As long as Africans continue to back APNU/PNC making it a dominant political force, Indians will counter by voting for the PPP.
This voting behaviour lead to the result of one group getting power and getting it absolutely while other groups get none or just scraps. This is how the cycle of exclusion and marginalization is perpetuated.
Even worse, the 2011 election result showed the PNC-created monstrosity of a constitution allows the executive (presidency) that wins just a plurality to operate as if it won a majority. So, voting race has backfired spectacularly on the smaller ethnic group (Africans) in democratic Guyana even when African votes contribute to a majority parliament but still is insufficient to control the presidency, which is where the real power lies.
Although Indians will slowly leave the PPP, this is occurring too slowly, and will not have an impact on the PPP losing power until probably the 2026 election.
As it stands, the overwhelming majority of Indians will not alter their votes as long as the PNC/APNU remains and continues to be overwhelming supported by Africans. Therefore, race voting in free and fair elections has delivered nothing of substance to Africans.
It has for PNC/APNU leadership who get seats in Parliament and gold-plated salaries, pensions, benefits and concessions from being a toothless opposition while the PPP dominates everything. But the African masses get nothing. No equal access and no fair share. Africans are at a crossroad in this country.
A change in the African political and economic condition will not occur until and unless Africans leave the PNC/APNU en masse. Indians have no incentive to make this change as they control the race voting outcome by sheer numerical superiority and their fear of the PNC/APNU remains potent. Africans have to make the move, not Amerindians, not Mixed Races.
Those latter groups have no political formations and no history of ethnic antagonism. They have no party. They are not as large as the African ethnic group. They cannot provide the psychological and psychic catharsis Africans can provide to this country by taking a massive step away from racial voting.
There is no moment greater than now for Africans to take the leap of faith to moulding a new Guyana. Indians are disgusted with the PPP hijackers. For the first time in 62 years since the formation of the PPP, Indians have reached across the divide in the last election with thousands voting for the AFC after breaking free from the PPP.
The mood for redemption and the atmosphere for reconciliation remains a powerful trade wind blowing across this land. Indians are ready for change. Africans cannot miss or lose this moment. They have to change to offer Indians sickened by the PPP a sign and signal of change. Africans march away from the PNC/APNU and their advances into new territory of multiracial politics and multi-ethnic voting is necessary for the numerically dominant group (Indians), listless with their own party and desperately seeking release from their political imprisonment to a PPP entity that has vilified their core morality, to march free. One group has to make the sacrifice for the other to consider changing the future of this country. That group has to be Africans.
One of the two warring ethnic groups in this country has to commence the long journey and with everything to gain and nothing to lose, Africans must reach out with an olive branch in the rebuilding of this country by walking away from the PNC/APNU in such massive numbers, it will find itself on the brink and into political oblivion.
When Africans migrate away from the PNC/APNU and start voting for multiracial parties like the AFC, it boosts multiracial politics by giving it critical mass.
Youths who have abandoned the bitterness of our political menagerie will return to democratic participation. Those Amerindians and Mixed Races who departed from the political scene in 2006 will flood back into a place of political renewal.
More talent will emerge. Vibrant leaders will appear. We will get our Barack Obamas, Winston Churchills, Lee Kwan Yews and more.
More parties will appear with greater internal democracy and inclusivity than the PPP and PNC/APNU. Leaders will emerge across this land. People will feel free to change political parties.
Even if the AFC gets a massive influx of Africans, those voters will shift to newer and better parties if the AFC does not reform. The PPP and PNC/APNU will undergo serious reform in order to recover some of their lost flock. This benefits Guyana immensely, as new leadership in these old parties will push Guyana in a better direction. Parties will have to work incessantly to please voters.
If Africans miss this mood in this country and continue on the beaten path of electoral beatings under the PNC/APNU, theirs will be a political legacy of decades more in the wilderness and its attendant marginalization.
Continued African support for the PNC/APNU amounts to voting for continued African exclusion.
For twenty years, Africans have gone down the path of race voting with absolutely nothing to show for it but misery and marginalization. The only way to change the dynamic of power in Guyana is to change voting behaviour. There is one group that has everything to gain and nothing to lose.
This country’s future lies in their hands. Africans changing race voting behaviour is the only way Guyana will change. It will be the greatest act of political good faith ever undertaken in this country since our forefathers stood up to slavery and indentureship.
M. Maxwell

 

 

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