Urgent need for PPP and PNC to transform themselves into genuine multi-racial parties

Nov 20, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I refer to Geralda Dennison’s letter titled: “The Guyanese people will just have to learn to live and let live”. (KN Nov. 17th), in which she commented on my earlier letter titled: “Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan bequeathed ethnic parties and ethnic voting to Guyana”.
Geralda opined, “I find it difficult to believe these men were racists”. The word “racist” would refer to someone who advocated or personally committed acts of discrimination on the basis of race. I too, like Geralda, do not believe these men were racists. Yet the big organizing principle of the institutions they created was based on race. They themselves, by becoming founder-leaders-for-life – and eventually ethnic gods – would have known that this idea in itself would bequeath a bitter legacy of ethnic voting by future generations of Guyanese.
Such all-consuming ethnic voting, over which they presided in their lifetimes and which continues today 15-25 years after their deaths, will forever thwart any chance for the development of a genuine multi-racial democracy in Guyana. In fact a Washington Post reporter told me in 1991 that “Western Ambassadors in Georgetown” told him that “you cannot have democracy in Guyana because every last man there votes race”.
Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham should have emulated the example of George Washington, who could easily have declared himself king of the United States in 1790s, as the people in that age were calling on him to do. Washington would have none of it – he chose to serve two terms as president and then retire to his farm.
I have been writing on this theme in the Independent press for the last few years in the hope of stirring up a national conversation on this topic, and one that could potentially generate enough public pressure on the ethnic parties – PPP and PNC – and force them to change.
At least two prominent letter writers have always justified ethnic voting. One of them, Sultan Mohamed, often cited the fact that Africans in New York City voted 90 percent strong for Mayor David Dinkins, or for Barack Obama, and therefore, concluded it is okay for Guyanese to vote race. Such absurd reasoning.
The truth is that in the United States, we have always had a band of voters of all races (swing voters) who will vote for one party in an election and another in a subsequent election. Their differing vote is always based on the way they perceive the issues and the candidates. The effect of this tradition is that the baton of power always passes from one party to another every two or three election cycles; this builds confidence in the democratic process, prevents ethnic tensions from accumulating in multi-racial societies and avoids ethnic riots.
The Indo-ethnic PPP has been in power for the last 20-years, thanks to the Indian majority and the legacy of ethnic voting. During this time the ruling party has been accused of “marginalizing the Africans”; both sides debate the evidence of marginalization. The reality is there doesn’t have to be any proof; it is the perception that matters. To remove the perception of discrimination we need to end the existence of ethnic parties and reduce the high levels of ethnic voting.
Geralda also writes: ‘The Guyanese people now live with the consequences, and it would be difficult to break the mould. They will just have to learn to live and let live and hope their children learn from past mistakes”. Former history lecturer of UG, Dr. Tyran Ramnarine agrees. He said it is the “reality of Guyanese politics; we just have to work around it”.
Really?  Isn’t the history of mankind and the art of governing steadily evolving? A dynamic process? Changes forever instituted by great leaders?
In the meantime I will only say that what exists in Guyana is not genuine democracy. And, the main reason is the existence of ethnic parties and the extremely high levels of ethnic voting.
While I have exploited Geralda’s letter to bring the focus back on a discussion of ethnic politics and how it has negated the very essence of democracy, I must say that I know this name Geralda Dennison as an accomplished writer to the letter columns of the Independent press. Her letters on the history and culture of Guyana are fine pieces of writing. I recall one on her visit to Essequibo Coast and her observations of the “dyeing” ritual that precedes Indian weddings – and how the practice changes one’s complexion. Her letters represent excellent commentary.
Indeed Geralda, Burnham and Jagan were not racists, but their legacies are undeniably ethnic parties and ethnic voting, and these legacies are a cancer that thwarts the development of genuine democracy in a multi-racial society.
Mike Persaud

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