Latest update April 3rd, 2026 12:35 AM
Guyana needs regular changes in government
Sep 23, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Now that the PPPC’s hold on power has ended, now that it is possible for a party or coalition of parties other than the PPP to win democratic elections, the question needs to be asked whether Guyana needs national unity.
In her address after being sworn in as Leader of the Opposition of Trinidad and Tobago, Mrs. Kamla Bissessar made a compelling argument as to why there was no need for the country’s two parties to put aside their differences.
She asserted that indeed the very political and constitutional system of her country’s Republic made provision for a government and for an opposition. Then she laid out a case for the need for there to be both. She said that democracy is about taking a side. Her address can be read in the Trinidad Express newspaper website.
I think she is right. Parties do not always share the same opinion. Differences are important. They allow for various options to be put on the table. They allow for an alternative to government. These things are not destructive.
What is destructive is the unwillingness of politicians to admit that they may not be right all the time or that others have a differing view to what they have. It is not the differences that are the problem; it is the non- acceptance of those differences.
Voting in Trinidad and Tobago takes place under a different electoral system. They have a first-past-the post system unlike us in which PR is still the dominant mode. But voting patterns in both Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana are the same.
There is strong ethnic voting in both countries and this is why in both countries we so often hear about the need to set aside differences and come together. You do not hear that in countries where voting patterns are not as polarized.
In those cases, the refrain is more that all the people have chosen and it is time for all to work for the good of the country. This does not mean that they should bury their political differences.
There is, of course, a major difference between elections in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana or at least, there used to be a major difference. Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago ruled his country for twenty-five years.
But when his party did lose power, there was no extended reign by any party. Governments have come and governments have gone in Trinidad. Kamla Bissessar only had one term. There has been stability in Trinidad and Tobago because after Williams’s rule there has always been a possibility of a change of government, and there have been such changes.
After democracy was restored in Guyana after twenty-six years of rigged elections, the PPP ruled for another twenty-three. In that period it was almost impossible for the supporters of the opposition to feel that they had a chance.
This is why Guyana’s politics is so problematic and why there has been so much political instability. For a long time, it mattered not what the PPP did, the party was able to ride to re-election on the back of predominantly ethnic vote.
That has changed now. The PPP was defeated by a combination of a change of demographics and a pre-election coalition. Guyana needs a dose of regular electoral change for political stability. It does not need national unity. That is a vague concept.
Guyana does need the government and the opposition to be working together. It needs a strong opposition to offer a different perspective to the government.
But more importantly, it needs guarantees that the party which in the past rigged its way to electoral successes in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1980 and 1985 will not go down that road again. Democracy must be respected if there is to be political stability.
There must be possibility of change, a strong possibility, not a remote possibility. If there are regular changes in government, insecurity will be reduced and there will be greater political stability.
If this is allowed; if ethnic polarization no longer guarantees an electoral victory, then Guyanese can stop wasting its time asking the two main parties to set aside their differences. These differences can make a difference between democracy and totalitarianism, as the former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago said.
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