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The politics of separation

Feb 16, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Scare politics and politics of minimum cooperation have long been a bane to the local political situation. Ever since race politics entered Guyana, (not that racism was not endemic to the society) there has been precious little cooperation at the parliamentary and the political levels.
Indeed, on national issues such as the territorial issue with Venezuela and Suriname’s claim to Guyana the political entities were unified. And this was not a rarity. During the tenure of the People’s National Congress, the opposition People’s progressive Party sided with the government.
It was the same when the PPP was in Government. President David Granger, while he was in the opposition, came out on the side of the PPP Government.
A similar coalition of political forces was very evident when Guyana moved to nationalize some foreign interests—the bauxite industry and sugar. The conditions seemed right for inter-party talks so both sides nominated the people who would do the talking for the parties.  As fate would have it, none of the teams managed to forge that political unity.
Generations have passed and such unity remains elusive.  It would seem that ever so often one or other of the political parties would make overtures to the other. Hopes would be raised only to be dashed not long after.
Just this past weekend, President Granger made an interesting observation and perhaps the strongest pitch for inter-party talks. He said, recently, “The results of the May 2015 elections, I do not regard as victory. I see it as an opportunity. For one side to win 207,000 and the other side to win 202,000 votes is not a grand victory.
“Rather, it is an opportunity for collaboration, not conflict; for a contract to cooperate and to understand that working together, not fighting; is the formula of the future.”
Surely, that says a lot but if there is no movement to talk then at least half of the adult population would be sitting on the side looking at the other half with anger, disdain and even arrogance. This is not going to help Guyana.
The PPP says that there are many factors that are preventing it from entering into party to party talks with the governing parties. One of them has to do with what the PPP sees as political witch-hunt. Indeed there were some dismissals but the government said that these were political appointees who had no role in the public service.
Back in the post 1992 elections that brought the PPP to office, the People’s National Congress published each week a list of the people who were sacked. It became clear that many of them, more than 200 were sacked because of their perceived relationship with the PNC. For example, the now vocal Ramon Gaskin walked into the electricity company with the proverbial bulldozer and removed all whom he said were PNC supporters. That list was made public.
On this occasion, the PPP is refusing to support its claim of witch-hunting by releasing the names of the people whom it said got sacked for no other reason than they are associated with the PPP. The party’s General Secretary says that he is waiting for a request from proper source. At the same time he is not going to talk.
It would seem that confrontational politics would be a hallmark of political life in Guyana. The nation got a solid dose during the recent parliamentary budget debates. It is more of the same in the refusal to represent the political opposition on state boards.  Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is again using the contention of political witch-hunting.
And this is allowed to continue because the wider society is not leaning on either side to bridge this chasm that is largely a product of Guyana’s ethnic composition and cultivation. One can only hope that with time this would change as the younger people chart their own course devoid of parental pressures.

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