People are victims of time and culture

Jun 22, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

All of the persons from City Hall administration that went to Mexico are from the era of City Hall politics of the mid-nineties. The Mexico trip is not only a financial scandal, but politically disgraceful. It is naïve to think that the four persons that went to Mexico were not aware of the vexations it would generate among people. They knew there would be fallout, but it is an attitude shaped by the period when they were in control of City Hall and the political culture they were born into.
This paper quotes Mr. Oscar Clarke as saying he will not apologize. It quotes Mr. Clarke as being defiant. None of the four persons that went to Mexico, at the psychological level, believe and accept that they were wrong in the procedures they adopted. The reason being; that is the culture which they were inducted into a long time ago. New eras call for new thinking, but new thinking cannot emerge from persons who are victims of an age long gone.
Contrast the attitude of the Mexico trippers and young Sherod Duncan. Very young in politics, Duncan didn’t understand what was going on. That was not the way he saw bureaucracy, power, and accountability. So he cried wolf. He was confused. How can he be the Deputy Mayor, and he and his elected colleagues did not know that the Mayor, two councilors and the Town Clerk were in Mexico? So he went public with his feelings of frustration
The Duncan outrage is a vivid manifestation of what lies ahead for Guyana. If this troubled land is going to surmount the social morass that it has lived with for decades, then, transformation will not come from people who are victims of their epochs that were shaped by ancient political culture. The people that went to Mexico were not nurtured in a political culture of accountability and democracy. These are concepts they have not seen in operation throughout their political careers.
It was for this reason that it would have been good for Guyana if dominant parties did not seek to control the City Councils and townships and NDCs during the local government elections. When one speaks of Guyana needing new faces for it to fashion a better country, age is not the factor. New is not the opposite of age. By new is meant people who were not victims of a certain epoch, where a certain type of understanding, narrative, conversation, way of doing things, administrative styles etc., were the prevailing values and are no longer valid thirty years after.
When people say that Guyana needs new faces, they really mean people who were never part of a political culture that was oligarchic and unaccountable. This is where the PPP failed after Mrs. Jagan resigned. Mr. Jagdeo was facilitated by the strong Stalinists in the PPP’s hierarchy. He was their prisoner. Then he became one of them. Jagdeo went wrong because as a new face in the PPP, he was virtually a footnote in the scheme of things. Mrs. Jagan and the Stalinists made him their Pavlovian creature. He accepted that role and became a willing prisoner of the culture of the PPP. As he grew in power, he only understood one thing – PPP’s culture. Jagdeo became what he saw in others in the PPP when he, Jagdeo, was a young member
That is what the zeitgeist to which you belong does to you. I can rattle off my head, dozens of Guyanese who are over 55 years of age but are new faces that can facilitate the transformational needs of Guyana. The simple fact is that they were never part of an organizational culture that had as its core the unaccountable use of power. If the APNU-AFC Government is going to succeed, it has to nurture minds that are different from the people that went to Mexico. If the PPP has any chance of regaining power, it has to exorcize the ghosts of the past that currently control the PPP.
What are the signs that both the PPP and the Coalition are heading in the direction of transformation? Surely, the PPP has to be discounted. Endowed with a hardline, Stalinist culture, the ghosts of the past do not, and will not, give any recognition to democratic instincts. There is no one in its hierarchy that accepts that the PPP must democratize and accept leadership challenges. To be honest, the APNU-AFC Coalition hierarchy does not embody that kind of Stalinist mind-set, but a transformational vision doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. I hope I am wrong.

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4 thoughts on “People are victims of time and culture”

Roy Persaud June 22, 2016 at 2:04 pm

The political culture of Guyana remains the same since Guyana’s Independence. Either party, PPP and PNC, uses “power” to demonstrate to their supporters that they are better than the other party. Nothing is wrong with this culture. However, when that “power” becomes undemocratic against the other party’s supporters then it’s a major problem.
When PNC is in power, 50% of the people are happy and the other 50% is sad. And when PPP is in power the same scenario plays out on the reverse. Why, because each party will distribute Guyana’s wealth to the 50% supporters to those that will ensure that they remain in power. This has been happening for decades and will continue to happen.
The Coalition was a ray of hope, that things will change towards a new direction. This was mainly because of new faces like Kemraj Ramjattan and Nigel Hughes, who were expected to change some of these culture. I guess they got suck down into the vacuum of this “power” culture, pretty fast.
This is a very sad situation for Guyana, you are correct there is no transformation vision for this situation.
ROOP KUMAR PERSAUD June 22, 2016 at 4:37 pm

There is the need for inclusive participation. This inclusiveness can only come when the likes of the “Mexico-four” re-adjust their mind-set for a new era. Freddie stop short of what local democracy via Local Government Elections can do for the people of Guyana. It is the citizens of each constituency who have to face the demons in their environment whether they voted for a councillor or not. The constitution must be made to put a brake on political parties to contest Local Government Elections and allow local groups to take this responsibility. This was encouraged at the last LGE. We need to nurture a culture where active participation is inclusive to take Guyana forward. The ‘divide and rule’ and ‘race hate’ is still in the blood of many Guyanese. We have to learn to grow that out.
Muhammad Raoof June 22, 2016 at 8:53 pm

Guyanese politicians have failed one crucial test. They all fail to understand that they are elected to serve the people/ country. Unfortunately, they act like little children just waiting to get their hands into the cookie jar.
19CAGriffith48 June 22, 2016 at 9:04 pm

Frederick: I urge you to continue in the role of Thomas Paine (1776) and shepherd and provide sage advise to young Sherod Duncan, Deputy Mayor .

The actions by these old timers reminds me of Matthew 9:17
“Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”

Nothing preserved with their actions and I commend young Sherod.

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