Guyana has a lot to emulate

Nov 08, 2012 Editorial

Everyday something happens to make the people of Guyana realize just how underdeveloped the country is. They also get a lesson in partition because every time an election comes around the nation is split along lines that threaten violent conflict. In the period between elections the nation gets a lesson in seeing and keeping its collective mouth shut.
The elections in the United States should always teach Guyanese something about democracy; about campaigning and about tolerance. Guyanese have been looking at these elections in real time ever since television came to Guyana in a big way back in 1984. They have seen the campaigns and they have seen what elections behaviour should be.
The United States has a diverse population; there are the whites who form the bulk of the population, then there are the Blacks, the Hispanics who now form the second largest group in the country, Asians, Chinese and the Mediterranean group (Italians) and of course the Jews. All of these have a stake in the elections and all have suffered ethnic dislike from one or other of the group. However, whenever the elections end the people simply go back to their daily lives.
Not so in Guyana, the losers tend to seek to sabotage national development by attacking institutions and even people viewed as being responsible for their loss. Today, almost one year after the last elections in November 2011, there is still rancor and political rhetoric, the kind that was heard on the campaign trail. There seems to be no move to get down to the job of taking the country forward. It is as if there is perennial election campaigning with the various parties seeking to win candidates.
It is not that the political parties in the United States do not go after each other in the House but there is talk and more often than not, there is compromise—give and take that would from time to time demand the intervention of the president. In Guyana there is hardly any giving, only a burning desire to show who is in charge and who is challenging the leaders.
Of course, there are those among us who will say that the United States has had more than 200 years of elections. That may very well be the case especially since election dates are statutory. There is no secrecy about when an election would be held. Guyana may do well to adopt this.
But what is most remarkable about what happens in the United States is the speed with which the results are delivered. The most recent elections were held on Tuesday and no more than six hours after the polls closed on the eastern seaboard, the results were in and a winner declared. There were more than 100 million votes to be counted.
The fastest Guyana has been able to deliver results has been five days after the polls and that was touted as reason to celebrate. Suffice it to say that even after that time and with less than 500,000 votes to count there were mistakes that some believed were designed to favour the incumbent.
Canadian Bank Note, the company that manages the Lotto system in Guyana had promised to establish terminals that would allow for the transmission of results as fast as the votes were recorded so that not only would there have been speedy results but would have minimized the extent of fraud. The present government has refused to change the system and to remain with the old system that accommodates fraud.
It could be that the leaders of Guyana have taken a conscious decision to keep the country rooted in backwardness because of the rate vote and the desire to perpetuate that. Fortunately, it would seem that the people of this country are tired of the race vote and they demonstrated this during the last elections. They are listening to issues.
Crime is a problem as is corruption. The government has failed to provide security; it is failing to effectively address these issues. The people are taking note. They also asked for protection against pirates. None is forthcoming and that too would be an issue in the same way the Americans see rising costs, jobs and economic matters being prime issues in the choice of a government.

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