Peeping Tom cannot lump all political parties together

Feb 01, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

Peeping Tom’s column, A Nation of Hustlers (KN 28/1/19) correctly pointed out that the PNCR, the PPP, the AFC and the WPA are pursuing neo-liberal policies which can only lead to a widening of the gap between rich and poor.
However, the Peeper is completely incorrect in saying that “all the new parties are no different. They offer no new economic model but instead the same old discredited neo-liberal approach which is turning Guyana into a nation of roadside vendors”.
If the Peeper had read OVP’s manifesto, published prior to the 2015 general and regional elections which we contested, he or she would have known that OVP has consistently attacked the neo-liberal capitalist policies that were implemented by Desmond Hoyte and his PNCR, continued by Cheddi Jagan and successive PPP regimes, and still enforced today by the Granger administration.
As the leader of OVP, I have been critical of the neo-liberal agenda since its inception, and long before many political commentators who now recognize it as discredited.
All the political parties in Guyana, with the exception of OVP, are neo-liberal in orientation, anti-poor and anti-working class, imperialist friendly, and thus subservient to the very ABC countries, who pressure them to implement the neo-liberal model.
As such, they cannot bring about real change. Every general election we see an exchange of political elites whose objective is to manage the existing arrangement, not to change it.
In contrast, OVP comes in the revolutionary tradition of Forbes Burnham. We have been referred to as the Burnham revivalists. Our objective is to dismantle the existing plantation arrangement, democratize the economy and place political power in the hands of the people, not political parties. We are committed to the realization of economic justice in our lifetime.
Our objective is clearly stated by the visionary leader and national hero – Forbes Burnham: “We want a just society where there is no poverty, no unemployment, no economically disinherited…that the masses participate fully in the economy and economic planning, that they benefit directly and fully from the exploitation of our resources, that their quality of life improves so that they no longer have to be satisfied with the existence of outcasts and menials.”
This objective can never be realized by the PNCR, PPP, AFC, WPA, ANUG, URP or any other neo-liberal electoral outfit.
The solution does not lie in creating new parties that adhere to the same old defunct political and economic system. Exchanging one of these neo-liberal parties for another will not bring about the change that Guyanese, especially the poor, so badly need.
It is time for real change and for real change to occur those in power must reject the neo-liberal capitalist model. The only political organization in Guyana that is aiming to do just that is OVP.
Before pronouncing that we are all the same, the Peeper needs to get hold of some OVP literature – our flyers are all over and readily available. The Peeper would then know that there is a real alternative on offer!

Gerald A. Perreira
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP)

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