I am voting out of tribe because I am rational

Feb 22, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Allow me to express a few words that summarise the results of a great catharsis that has occurred within me over the past year as I consider my political choices on the eve of our 50th Jubilee anniversary and the great impending election. In my opinion, both the two main parties have failed me.
I am traditionally a PPP voter and respect Jagdeo’s competence, but the politics in this country is broken. We are trapped in a winner-take-all contest driven by race politics. The PPP is criticising the failings of the APNU government’s first four years in power after their 23-year reign over the bloodiest and most corrupt period in Guyana’s post-independence history.
The fact that this APNU government has not been able to prosecute anyone significant points to two possibilities – the previous PPP government was not corrupt or members of the present government are themselves compromised and are motivated to let sleeping dogs lie.
What is pellucidly clear is that both parties are complicit in signing away the country’s oil wealth for a pittance and both are claiming ignorance and incompetence instead of corruption. As much as I want to vote PPP again, I can’t bring myself to vote for a Jagdeo third term with his preferred candidate as a front-man which I find offensive to our democracy.
The voters in Guyana are split into two camps – tribal voters and rational voters.
The tribal voters will vote tribe every election. Political choice is about having their tribe in power whether they are corrupt or incompetent. They will ignore and reason away any shortcomings of their tribe. They cannot change, for it means a change in personal identity, which is difficult for most.
The rational voters are a minority and examine the leader’s qualities, the party’s mandate, their manifesto, and determine which party they feel is worthy of their support.
The good news is the rational voters now have good and valid choices, and even one seat would have a significant influence in the running of parliament and the functioning of government.
Nearly all of the parties are led by a new generation of rational leaders who are fed up with the politics of their fathers. There are at least five new parties to choose from, all headed by persons of integrity with no shortage of good ideas. Three of them (LJP, ANUG, TNM) have created and signed the Joinders Memorandum to ensure that no vote is wasted, with mechanisms to protect against the dreaded third force curse of being coopted, corrupted and betrayed.
When I look at myself in the mirror, I cannot bring myself to keep repeating the same mistake election after election. I know that most of my countrymen are tribal and I will not blame them for it. I understand the tribal loyalties, but I feel that I must vote to save my country. I must have the courage to be rational in my choice. And in that light and choice, I want to support the LJP and its bright and courageous Indigenous leader with the kind smile, for they are a signatory to the Joinders Memorandum. The future of my children depends upon it.
Yours sincerely,
Govind Hinds PhD

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