We can demand and achieve a government of national unity

Mar 12, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The tragic events unfolding in Guyana remind us more than ever that, as elders Eusi Kwayana and Moses Bhagwan have underlined in their courageous and urgent statement, whoever wins the elections under this winner take all system, all of Guyana loses. As Guyanese we need to face reality. We must, without compromise, insist that there must be a verified process that conforms to the Representation of the People Act and has the confidence of the parties, of Guyanese, of observers. What GECOM did last week has made a farce and an utter mockery of the election process. And we should be outraged and we must across all divisions condemn it. It is also high time and beyond time that we face another, entrenched, reality, one beautifully outlined (yet again, for he has been saying this for some time) in Henry Jeffrey’s column of March 11th, and that is that in another sense, fairer and better elections matter little in a deeply polarised winner takes all context. None of the political parties taking power since independence has done anything to shift this needle. And let us be honest, whatever coalition or civic they add on, we are talking about the stranglehold of the PPP and PNC on Guyanese people’s lives, like a boot on our collective throats. The tragedy is that we have a crop of political leaders in the age of oil, oblivious to what mati will do and is doing to mati in the name of party, because their aim is to win. They claim that they believe in sharing power but they really mean to share out most things to very few among themselves.
To those prophets who would accuse Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana of only now conveniently speaking up, let me remind them of the statement issued by Andaiye, Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana on January 8, 2018 in response to the so called coalition government’s closure of the sugar estates: “We remind those in power today of the APNU-AFC Manifesto for the 2015 elections, where they committed to “establish and entrench an inclusionary democracy through the appointment of a Government of National Unity which would create opportunities for the participation of citizens and their organisations in the management and decision-making processes of the state, with particular emphasis on the areas of decision-making that affect their well-being.” We ask the government, were these empty promises?”
On January 7, 2019, in a diaspora column called “Guyanese people, wake up! Ex-change after exchange is never a real change”, I ended by dreaming of “A movement of folks. Dressed in brown (the party colours of red and green combined). Our allegiance is to this incredible land that we owe so much to. Holding meetings. Marching side by side. Meeting up in front of parliament. In front of Congress Place. Freedom House. AFC headquarters. Demanding these so-called leaders (for that is ALL they are) sit down and put the mechanisms in place for a Government of National Unity. Only we can demand and achieve this. For over 60 years, we have handed our power to these politicians. It is high time and about time that we begin the work, the necessary work, to take it back.”

Sincerely,
Alissa Trotz

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