Decentralization is not an alternative

Jun 18, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Vassan Ramracha, a well known contributor to the Letters’ columns writes an interesting and funny commentary on “Mike’s dinner-hosting meeting with Granger’s entourage”, published in the government-owned paper. (GC, June 7th, “PNC apology does not resolve ethnic security dilemma”).  Unfortunately, that paper will not carry my response, hence this letter now published in KN.
I recognize that Vassan is deeply concerned about a solution to Guyana’s very flawed democracy. (Is he really?). As a Trinidadian, Vassan should be commended for his contributions to these discussions.  The readers will notice right away that Vassan and I describe the same animal differently, and therefore each of us will propose different solutions.
Vassan defines the problem as “Ethnic Security Dilemma”, and he proposes a remedy called “Decentralization”. Elsewhere Vassan’s group (Jaguar which later morphed into ROAR, now disbanded) describes the solution as “Federalism”.
I have never really understood the idea of Federalism as proposed by the writers of Jaguar group. (Do they plan to turn the three counties of Demerara, Berbice, Essequibo into semi-autonomous states within a Federal Union?).
So I turned to Dr. Tyran Ramnarine (former History lecturer at UG) who explained Dev’s concept of Federalism as really nothing more than “Decentralization” –  decentralizing some services which for a over a hundred years have been centralized in the hands of the Central government and run from the Capital city, Georgetown. Somehow this idea of decentralization would solve all the problems encapsulated under “Ethnic Security Dilemma”.
Decentralization is a policy. The PPP government does already have such a policy – Berbice campus of UG, Registrar’s branch office at Suddie on the Essequibo Coast. Mr. Dev has also called for decentralization of the police force. Each little town/village would have control of recruiting and training of its village police force. Dr. Ramnarine supports decentralizing the police force.
Thus explained the readers should recognize that the policy of Federalism/Decentralization has no relationship to my advocacy of genuine multi-racial parties which would foster the development of a sizeable pool of Swing Voters – and which in turn would cause the baton of power to change every few election cycles. Regular turn-over of power would produce more transparent, accountable and responsible governments.
The racial tensions in the society would also be reduced, if not disappear completely, given a  few election cycles. The PPP and PNC themselves would no longer be perceived as ethnic parties. My concept of a multi-racial democracy and Jaguar group’s advocacy of Federalism/Decentralization are not substitutes or alternatives to each other.
Let it be said that Vassan has got several things about this “dinner hosting meeting” wrong, but rather than correcting factual errors, I’ll rather focus on important issues. The meeting afforded us an opportunity to engage the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. David Granger on how the Guyanese people can break the spell of racial voting.
Did we agree on a package of ideas on how this may be achieved? Of course not. I also strongly support the idea that African-Guyanese leaders should be welcome in Indian-dominated villages as brothers; vice versa for Indian-Guyanese leaders in African-dominated villages. Vassan does not – this much is clear from his letter.
Excessive ethnic voting for perceived ethnic parties is the root cause of practically all our problems in Guyana – including what the Dev group calls “Ethnic Security Dilemma” — lack of racial unity, same government in power for 22-years and counting, massive corruption and mismanagement of the nation’s resources, high crime rates, road carnage, etc. In short: incompetence of the government and no hope for a solution to any of these problems.
Entrenched ethnic parties and a culture rooted in ethnic voting will require a lot of work to end it. Party leaders, PNC’s David Granger, and PPP’s Donald Ramotar, may be powerless to change it, even if they have the will.
The Dev group accepts and defends the idea of ethnic parties and ethnic voting. I am adamantly opposed to the ideas of the Dev group. We can expect the Dev group to call next for partition of the country along racial lines.
Vassan cites the example of Ukraine and says the government there is implementing “decentralization” as a policy to solve the “ethnic security dilemma”. Ukraine is different from Guyana. Ethnic groups are heavily concentrated in particular regions – and because of Russian interference, these groups are now opting to form unions with nations across the border, an age-old problem.
In Guyana, our major ethnic groups, Africans and Indians, are not so concentrated.
Mike Persaud

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