Bisram’s attempt to link the AFC to the PNC/APNU is deceitful

Jan 08, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Vishnu Bisram challenged my condemnation of the pathetic attempts by some PPP backers, Bisram included, to link the AFC to the PNC/APNU. It is pathetic simply because it has failed already when the PPP went all across Guyana during the last election trying to make this connection stick and still ended up with less than a majority.
The cat is out of the bag on this one. Fear politics will not work. Voters also realize the PPP did not try this madness in 2006 although both parties contested the election then because they won a majority. It is only now that the PPP has lost power in Parliament, its backers have resorted to this dirty racially divisive message.
The message of the ‘AFC and PNC ah wan’ is simple – Indians should not vote for the AFC because it is in bed with the African dominated PNC and Indians will be voting for Africans if they vote for the AFC. That is the racial thrust of this message. It is sickening and dastardly.
It is not as if the PPP has become more democratic, less thieving, more transparent, less corrupt, more responsible, less incompetent and more humane. As long as this remains the case, this kind of message has no legs to stand on when used on those PPP supporters who have left the PPP for its corruption, venality and ineptitude.
This mantra is a failed tactic and a gross miscalculation because it is rooted in race. Its entire premise is to psychologically bully Indians back to the PPP as opposed to trying to win back those Indians who left with good governance, transparency, accountability and decency. The other part of the problem with this ridiculous message is it fails to understand demographic changes and how a racially provocative message can implode.
Indians are the fastest declining ethnic population. Amerindians and Mixed Races are the fastest increasing. Between now and 2016, the Indian population is in steady decline. By 2016, some of those votes the PPP seeks to recapture will disappear as will a politically significant percentage of the entire Indian vote.
Spreading a racially turbulent and disgusting message geared to recapture a very small and shrinking group while the repulsive pro-ethnic nature of this message turns off massive numbers of vital crossover voters from the fastest growing ethnic groups (Mixed and Amerindian) is plain dumb political strategy.
The PPP’s Amerindian and Mixed Race support has dramatically shrunk from 2006 to 2011. I cannot see them returning to this brand of the PPP. In fact, I foresee the virtual disappearance of vital crossover voter support (Amerindian and Mixed Race) for the PPP in 2016, a devastating blow that could cost the PPP the presidency.
Only a bunch of shortsighted individuals (the PPP and PNC/APNU are filled with them) will see political profit in gaining a shrinking few while losing a burgeoning many. Bisram’s attempt to paint the PPP’s attempt to unite with the PNC in the late 1970s and 1980s as necessary is flawed. The PPP’s leadership did this for power and only power and psychologically sabotaged its own supporters after incensing them for over 15 years on racial-political vitriol.
How Bisram equates a communist party joining forces with a dictatorship to create a one-party tyranny (PPP and PNC) alongside two democratically elected parties cooperating where necessary on vital issues such as corruption (PNC and AFC) in a multi-party democratic state, is beyond me. When the AFC voted against the PNC and with the PPP in Parliament, was it still ‘wan’ with the PNC? If the AFC wins the presidency in the next election in a minority government, should the PPP refuse to vote in Parliament in conjunction with the PNC against the AFC when the AFC is clearly wrong on some policy? The interests of the country would be best served with the PPP and PNC voting against the AFC in that scenario.
My calling the PPP supporters hypocritical has nothing to do with the AFC. I am not a member of, nor do I support, the AFC. I support no political party in Guyana. But I view the inaction and silence of PPP members and supporters to the dictatorship hijacking of their party by a handful of Jagdeoites as hypocritical, particularly when these same individuals were vehemently opposed to dictatorship and hijacking of democracy under the PNC. These supporters and members took serious action by voting heavily against the PNC the first opportunity they got to do so. Yet they stoop while despots ride roughshod over their own party.
The fear-driven notion Cheddi Jagan and the PPP leadership has drilled into Indians that unity must be preserved at all costs is absolute hogwash. It was an attempt to accomplish exactly what has always happened and is happening today – seizure of the party by a few without rebellion from the membership and supporters. Burnham did the same thing under the PNC, but the PNC supporters and members have gone through several open battles leading to more democracy within the PNC than in the PPP. Alarmingly for the PPP and its members and supporters, I believe the PNC/APNU was able for the first time since 2001 to secure in 2011 a decent share of crossover voters (Amerindians and Mixed Race). That is a dangerous signal for PPP supporters. The leadership of their party has caused this damage and will continue to further the assault on the PPP. Racially trenchant and disuniting messages along with the excesses of the PPP leadership and the relentless cronyism that feeds their friends and families drive away crossover voters. Future elections cannot be won without their healthy support.
M. Maxwell

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