We are better together

Jul 15, 2018 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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“The winner-take-all political culture has become dangerously dysfunctional…the tide of ideas in Guyanese politics has turned. Today, the 15th of July, marks the birthday of the new politics, a birth begotten by A Partnership for National Unity. We are more than a party, we are a movement,” – David Granger at the Launch of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

Seven years ago, His Excellency David Granger accurately described the ‘old’ politics in Guyana when he said, “confrontation characterized the ‘old politics.’ Calculations of ethnic support determined election tactics. The ‘winner-take-all’ jackpot became the prize of every election. The political landscape became a battlefield, not always of ideas, but of racial rivalry. Communal conflict hampered human development. That system has now become dangerously dysfunctional. Our society, under the PPP’s 19-year, one-party regime, has become more deeply divided than it has ever been at any time for 100 years.”
Seven years ago, on the 15th July 2011, APNU was launched with great fanfare at the Ocean View International Hotel. Four months later, the Partnership contested the November 28, 2011 General and Regional elections and garnered 139,645 votes and 26 seats in the National Assembly. APNU along with the Alliance for Change (AFC) 7 seats, would command a one-seat majority in the 10th Parliament of Guyana. On May 11, 2015 APNU in coalition with the AFC defeated the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) at General and Regional elections.
There have always been political partnerships in Guyanese politics, but most have been purely symbolic and, in some instances, strategic. What happened in 2011 was something much more transformative, because this was not your garden variety, cosmetic coalition like the PPP teaming up with Civic.
In this partnership for national unity, a major mass-based party the Peoples National Congress Reform – PNCR – partnered with several other political parties and civic groups. The PNCR also sacrificed its trademark electoral symbol the Palm Tree (56 years of branding), something never done by any major political party. The partnership established a new name, a new symbol, and campaigned as a team with a single manifesto.
Any political party that loses an election goes through a period of reflection and self- examination. The PNCR, having lost four consecutive contests, emerged as a truly liberal democratic force. This evolution started when the party merged with the Reform wing and accelerated after the death of party leader Desmond Hoyte. There were constant insurgencies that openly contested the leadership of the party. Young leaders brought new ideas, new thinking and flaunted their spurs and political resumes, challenging the establishment and the party’s old ways of doing business.
Political pundits were quick to criticize and many predicted that the insurgency was fatal to party unity. Others saw it as a power grab by factions with political ambitions, but this was a metamorphosis and the sometimes-messy dynamics of a truly democratic organism that culminated with the historic 2011 primary process, where five candidates contested to become the party’s Presidential candidate. This also marked the first time in Guyana, where a sitting Party Leader was not the Presidential Candidate.
It was clear to the Joint Opposition Political Parties that would eventually comprise APNU that the paramountcy of the PPP had to be challenged by a united force that looked like Guyana and was representative of all the stakeholders, labour, the clergy, youth and students, women’s organisations, business and politics. It was apparent to all the partners that the people of Guyana were tired of one-party rule and wanted more from their leaders.
It was clear that the race-based politics and policies of the past had no place in the future, and Guyana with all of its resources would not reach its true potential and embrace modernity if the old ways of doing business were allowed to continue.
This partnership (APNU) gave the nation a chance to hit the reset button, and the leaders a new pallet on which to promote policies and programmes designed to advance the interests of all the people of Guyana. In a multi-racial society, a party must appeal to other groups, and by the nature and construct of this partnership for national unity, their intent was clear.
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine the leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) was prophetic on that July day, seven years ago when he pronounced, “We are today a wider, more diverse partnership than we were last week. We are not yet nearly as diverse and as wide as we need to be. We know this, APNU is a dynamic, expanding partnership; together we must and will create a genuinely inclusive partnership where all constituencies can enter and represent themselves”.
We held those truths then and we still believe today- We are better together.

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