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THE RIGHT TO RULE

Jun 04, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Multiculturalism is getting a bad name around the world. Many of the problems, including violence between ethnic groups around the world, are traceable to the difficulties in making multiculturalism work.
Multiculturalism as an ideal is under attack. Has multiculturalism failed? Can it ever work? And what about Guyana, where we are constantly drilled in the ideology that national unity – meaning multicultural unity – will solve all of our problems?
Multiculturalism is in the retreat in Europe. This is evident in the rise of anti-immigration populism in Austria, Italy Hungary Poland, Spain, Netherlands and Germany. The Brexit vote in Britain was a backlash against immigration from Eastern Europe, which it was felt was depriving British citizens of jobs and increasing pressures on health and education services. The verdict could hardly be more convincing, Europe in turning away from multiculturalism.
Many see the same thing happening in the United States. While the threat of terrorism is offered as the reason for the anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration, it is undeniable that these policies also threaten multiculturalism in the heartland of the free world.
In the Caribbean, one leader who came to power by clamping down on immigrants has lost power not because of these policies but because he failed to addresses his country’s economic woes. Guyanese travellers will tell you about their trepidation when visiting certain foreign capitals. They are harassed by immigration authorities.
The independent countries of the Caribbean generally have not been keen on multiculturalism. The objection is mainly economic. And this is the primary cause of regional insularity.
So if multiculturalism is failing all around the world, why do we expect it to succeed in Guyana? Why do we think it will work in Guyana?
The lack of ethnic unity has long been blamed for the problems of Guyana. We are fond of saying that if only there can be unity, our problems will disappear.
We are fooling ourselves. Guyana has two main problems. The first is a political problem and the second is the economic problem. The former has very little to do with the latter. Our local political leaders have failed to come up with successful political or economic model.
They have failed to come up with a successful model to manage the resources of Guyana. But they have a fallback. They can always invoke the bogey of the racial disunity and our divisive politics – one and the same issue.
Multiculturalism has not failed Guyana. What has failed are the politicians who exploit racial differences and who lack the economic foresight to manage the economy.
The problem for which multiculturalism is getting a bad name is the question of who should rule. Each of the main races wants to be ruled by their own. Indians, generally want to be ruled by an Indian-dominated government and Africans generally want to be ruled by their own. It matters not who has delivered a better economic programme. People want to be ruled by their own.
We can feign ignorance that this is not the case but at the heart of the ethnic problem in Guyana is who has the right to rule.
The cry of power sharing only raises its head when the PPP is in office. But once they are out, the idea falls out of favour. Power sharing is just a ruse to get a foot into the door, which leads to state power. Once that foot is in the door, power sharing is no longer a priority.
To its credit, the PPPC was never interested in power sharing. Its focus has always been class unity. But it supported that position as long as it had the numbers to win an election. It no longer has those numbers. It is left to be seen whether it will beg for power sharing.
The APNU+AFC campaigned on the basis of power-sharing. It said that when it came into office that it would involve the PPPC. But no sooner had it won the election by a razor slim margin, it forgot the issue of power sharing.
Instead, it borrowed from the Europeans the idea of social cohesion – an idea, which the very Europeans are now rejecting and which does not address who should rule.

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