My Contrary Politics, the PPP and Guyana’s Critical, Independent Tradition

Apr 29, 2018 Features / Columnists, Hinds' Sight with Dr. David Hinds

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One of the criticisms I face daily from government supporters is that my critique of the government, valid or invalid, serves the PPP cause. This kind of reaction is inevitable in our ethnic-based political culture, which generally allows little latitude for independent positions.
While there is a critical mass of African Guyanese that is uncomfortable with the direction of the APNU+AFC government, they are wary of public expression. I hear privately from scores of these people weekly.
The fear of a return of the PPP to power is very strong among African Guyanese. It is not simply a fear of the “other;” it is memory of the way in which the PPP, while in office, used the power of the government and state to destroy the very soul of the African Guyanese community. By the time the PPP left office, African Guyanese were politically, economically and psychologically broken. This is something the PPP continues to ignore and deny.
Where do I stand in this problematic situation? My politics begin from a recognition of my social and ethno-racial roots in a post-plantation space—this is key to the evolution of my world-view. As someone born into the Black poor, in a Guyana and Caribbean emerging from centuries of slavery and colonial domination and who through a convergence of time, place and circumstances managed to overcome the debilitations of that condition, I think that helping to correct the wrongs of that condition is one of my primary political responsibilities.
In that regard, as a descendant of the enslaved, who were robbed of their dignity, I will always be moved to defend and protect the dignity of the African. But that logic leads me to a rejection of Black indignity. It is this fierce rejection of Black indignity that leads me to similarly reject the indignity of other ethnicities and races. Further, I am a firm believer in an ethnically united Guyana, but that unity must be premised on ethnic equality and mutual respect.
For me, then, all Guyanese, regardless of ethnicity, must have equal access to power and to the common resources of our country. While the socially and economically powerful of all ethnicities are important, it is the poor and the powerless who must be defended and uplifted by those who have the means and scope to do so. In other words, my politics weave together race, class and nation, always trying to navigate both their particularity and intersections. I start from the position that none of the three constructions is primary, but all are definitive.
It is against that background that my attitude to successive governments has been constructed. I am loyal to the cause of Black empowerment, but not to Black political parties and governments. I am loyal to the cause of the poor of all ethnic groups, but I am disloyal to the flawed governments poor people vote into office.
I rather suspect that it is this independent streak that has got me into trouble with the current government, which I helped in some small way to come to power and which despite its many shortcomings I still generally support. Here, I make a clear distinction between support and loyalty.
It is not only the government that has a problem with my independent, contrary politics—the PPP also has a difficulty with me. While acknowledging and lauding my critique of the government, three PPP leaders– former presidents Donald Ramotar and Bharrat Jagdeo and former minister Clement Rohee, have taken me to task for my continuing criticism of the PPP’s performance of the PPP while it was in power.
President Jagdeo, for example, described my stance as a “balancing act.” According to him “…I think he is concerned about where this government is going….he has seen the egregious breaches….but he is part of it. His party (the WPA) is part of the government and he benefits from the govt….so he continues to make the point that APNU is better than PPP.”
Minister Rohee expresses similar sentiments in a recent Facebook post that excited a lot of comment from the PPP faithful. According to him: “If there is one African Guyanese who has the testicular perspicacity to question or better yet, expose the shenanigans, betrayals and deceptive nature of his fellow African Guyanese in the PNC dominated APNU, it is David Hinds…Hinds has a lot to repent for insofar as his ethnocentric, divisive and unwarranted attacks on the PPP are concerned… As far as Hinds’ love-hate relationship with the PNC dominated APNU+AFC is concerned, the situation is somewhat muddled. On balance, Hinds’ writings still cast the APNU+AFC in a positive light relative to the PPP/C.”
And President Ramotar said: “Hinds’ position has changed since Rodney’s death. He has adopted a Black Nationalist position. Unlike Rodney, his concern is no longer for the poor in general, for the working people. No, now his only agenda is to have a Black Government even if it is pauperising the Guyanese working people including African Guyanese working class”.
Contrary to what the PPP leaders think, I do not set out to make any false equivalency—I am not trying to balance criticisms. I call it as I see it. Guyana always deserves a critical, independent narrative and analysis, and I feel a duty to this tradition in which I was moulded. As the government in waiting, the PPP will not get a free pass from me. Because the PPP has not engaged in any serious self-criticism since leaving office, I am sure that if it returns to office anytime soon, it will resume its rampage with a vengeance. And I have concluded that if the current government is not checked, it would soon end up where the PPP was when it was voted out of office three years ago.

More of Dr. Hinds ‘writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news. Send comments to [email protected]

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