BEING SMITTEN LEADS TO BEING BITTEN

Aug 31, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A standup comedian observed that these days politicians are not emerging from the ranks of the people. Instead, they are offering themselves up to the people as the chosen ones. They come forward and announce, “I believe that I have the qualities to be your leader.” Instead of the people deciding who they wish to contest for the leadership, the leaders are thrusting themselves on the people and asking for their support.
This is what democracy has long disintegrated to. Leaders are identified and the people end up fighting with each other as to who they should support, not recognising that none of the candidates was ever the people’s choice in the first place. It was not the people who decided that they should contest for leadership. It is their parties and in some cases some leaders themselves who impose themselves on the people.
There are some politicians who do not belong to any party but they want to become president too. As the political processes within the political parties are refined, as we debate which party is more democratic in its methods of selecting a candidate, the people should not lose sight of the fact that the umbilical cord between candidate and people has long been severed.
Until the people themselves begin to throw up their own candidates and force their political parties to accept these candidates, internal democracy will always be deficient and we will continue to have this ‘silly season’ every five years in which the people are forced to choose between candidates not of their original choosing.
The people end up dividing themselves over these imposed candidates. Each side tries to find what is bad, what is unacceptable and what is tainted about the other. They know very little of their own other candidate except what is told to them. And what is told to them is often itself a product of a process in which each side tries to make its candidate look good at the expense of the other.
It gets all ugly when the mud begins to be thrown. These candidates are not bad individuals. They are all human beings. They all may mean good. They may have different perspectives on certain things but the more closely you examine what they are saying, you will discover they all wish the best for Guyana and for the parties they represent. So why then if there is so much in common amongst these candidates are the people dragged into a divisive process every five years.
The reason is that throughout our history, the ruling class has come under the yoke of a powerful economic class. The ruling class becomes smitten by this class and then the smitten leads to them being bitten. Being bitten leads inevitably to the ruling class acting in the interest of this powerful economic class.
It is in the interest of the powerful economic class to keep the political parties, and by extension the public, divided because in so doing this economic class is able to unravel any working class solidarity that can be forged by the people identifying the essential commonalities between their candidates.
Our politicians are not evil persons. They do not wish to destroy one section of the population or to empower one side at the expense of the other.
The politicians are not bad people. They may have different beliefs and those values may mean different things for different economic classes but in the main, all politicians do not wish to see things go wrong for people because if that happens they lose face.
The problem comes when the politicians, as has been the case in Guyana for so long, become captive to the powerful economic class. The rules are then shifted in favour of this one class at the expense of the vast majority of the people.
And instead of recognising when the ruling class is exercising power in favour of the powerful economic class, the people instead fight amongst themselves about who is good and who is bad. No one is bad; people simply act on different interests. And that interest may not always be for the masses.
It is therefore for the people to regain control of their political parties, not to put one party against the other because in the end the people are undermining their own interest and allowing the powerful economic class to cement their hold on the ruling class.
The people must cease dividing themselves along party lines. They must see that in the end it matters not which party is in power, the poor always remain disadvantaged and this is because the powerful economic class has been able to firstly divide the people along party lines. Secondly, they have been able to capture the ruling class and influence that class to exercise power generally in their interests.
The powerful economic class is not going to lose whichever party wins the election because this class will ensure that whoever is elected rules in its interest. The powerful economic class will meet with all candidates. They are not bothered. They are confident that with the stranglehold they have on the direction the country has to go, their interests are going to be protected and they will be well protected whoever wins an election.
Instead, therefore, of the people fighting amongst themselves as to who should rule, they should be asking the more relevant question. In whose interests will the person who we are electing, rule? Will that person rule in the interest of the working class or will he rule in the interest of those who will throw millions of dollars into the coffers of the various political parties?
If the people asked themselves those questions, they would stop this silly game of arguing as to which candidate is good and which is bad. None of the candidates are bad; they are all good people. What is bad is when we allow ourselves to be divided in choosing amongst them.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)