The return of the party card?

Dec 09, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

In the heyday of PNC rule, the two most prized possessions in Guyana were a party card or a United States visa. One allowed favours within the country and one facilitated escape from the country.
A party card opened many doors. It intimidated public bureaucrats and allowed for its possessor to gain easy and preferential access to government services.
A party card was a passport for employment and upward mobility in the state sector. Ken Danns in his book, Domination and Power in Guyana: A Study of the Police in a Third World Context, noted that “the possession of a party card [was] an important criteria for appointments and promotions.”
The party card led to employment discrimination. A great many untrained and incompetent persons were able to secure employment over better qualified and experienced persons, simply because they held a party card or were referred by a top PNC official. Persons were bypassed for promotions on the basis of a party card.
The party card led to a decline in standards within the public service. ‘Square pegs’ were placed in ‘round holes’. Some of these persons could not read or write properly, but owed their position to their political affiliation. The result was that standards in the public service declined.
The party card corrupted the public service. It became a licence for graft. Many bureaucrats enriched themselves at the public trough, because they knew that they could turn to their ‘godfathers’ and ‘godmothers’, within the ruling party, for protection.
The party card allowed rules to be bypassed. Persons with party cards or with links to the party were able to be granted loans, which they otherwise would not have qualified for, by the publicly-owned banks.
These ‘political loans’ were one of the main reasons why the Guyana National Cooperative Bank and the Guyana Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank were bankrupted, with billions in bad debts having to be written off. And as one person noted, having a party card could even be used to avoid being charged by the police.
The party card provided privileges. In the days of food shortages, when citizens could be found lining up for hours to get basic consumer items, a party card allowed the holder to avoid the trouble of having to line up with the masses. The party card allowed you to do the same when it came to obtaining a passport. It gave access to scholarships, housing and land.
The PNC itself later admitted that one of the reasons why some persons were joining the party was in order to receive the benefits, which came from membership. At a Special Congress of the PNC held in November 1973, leader of the party, Forbes Burnham proposed a system of ‘exclusive’ membership to weed out the opportunists.
According to declassified documents, released by the Department of State of the United States, Margaret Ackman, the Assistant Secretary of the PNC, confided to a top US embassy official that too many persons had the idea that PNC membership automatically entitled them to jobs, houses and favours.
The exclusive membership never materialized, because the system of party patronage had become endemic, and Burnham could not dismantle the monster that he had created. There were the occasional forays against corruption, but the party patronage remained entrenched.
Many persons fear that the recent statements by the PNC Chairperson Volda Lawrence, that she would only be employing PNC persons, signals a return to the days of party paramountcy, when a party card was a ‘boss’. Those days never left. Party patronage has been part of Guyana’s political culture ever since, including under the PPPC.
Party patronage still exists in employment, the provision of government services. The danger is not about a return to the days of the party card. You cannot return to what exists.
The danger which exists is that party patronage, cronyism and nepotism – which many hoped the Coalition would have abandoned – is going to be intensified as Guyana approaches first oil. If that happens, then Guyana’s oil wealth is going to be corrupted. Those with the political connections will cream off this wealth, while the poor and ordinary citizen will continue to live in hope and die in despair.

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