The days of dictatorship are over

Jul 26, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

There is growing apprehension that the APNU+AFC is taking Guyana down the path of dictatorship. This fear is predicated on the belief that the APNU+AFC will not relinquish power and therefore will have to find a way to maintain itself in power, and that this way could only be through political dictatorship.
Paul Nehru Tennessee, the former leader of the Democratic Labour Movement which had contested the 1992 elections, discussed this possibility in an interview on Kaieteur Radio last Friday evening. He was of the opinion that the only way open to sustain a dictatorship would involve a return to the Burnham model.
Guyana appears to be heading towards dictatorship. However, it will not be as easy this time around as before because the objective conditions are vastly different and do not lend themselves to a successful resurrection of the Burnham model of political dictatorship.
For one, the international environment is changed. Burnham received support from the West because he was seen as an opportunist and as a foil to prevent a communist regime, emerging under Jagan. The Communist threat no longer exists. The West no longer harbours the same trepidation about communist regimes as it did before.
Burnham was tolerated by international community. Guyana, despite being a dictatorship under Burnham, was still able to participate in meetings of the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community and the Non-Aligned Movement. This time things are different.
The APNU+AFC has already found itself isolated internationally. The West has imposed visa restrictions on persons and the United Kingdom will do so once an illegitimate government is sworn in.
Guyana’s regional credentials have also taken a hit. The scurrilous attacks by the APNU on the staff of the Caribbean Community makes it more likely than ever before that the Secretariat will be removed from Guyana. Even before the elections crisis, CARICOM had experienced difficulties in attracting highly-qualified staff to work in Guyana. The vile attacks which are being levelled against senior staff members of CARICOM may force the Heads of Government to take a decision to remove the Secretariat out of Guyana should the country, as expected, be suspended from participation in the organs of the Community.
The Organization of American States (OAS) will most definitely impose sanctions on Guyana should the APNU+AFC not demit office. There is more than a strong possibility that it will call its individual member states to take action against any illegitimate government. If that action involves travel restrictions, it will mean that most government officials will be unable to leave the country since no country will accept them.
Second, it will not be easy to maintain the same level of social control as during the Burnham dictatorship when there was a virtual police state. Dictators are always fearful of being toppled. They constantly have to look over their shoulders. They have to have a wide network of spies and hatchet men to do their dirty work. This will make governance extremely unstable since, in keeping with the nature of political dictatorship, everyone will be under a cloud of suspicion.
Maintaining a police state was a key element of the Burnham dictatorship. This will be hard to replicate. People will now be more willing to resist the sort of impositions which will be made on their personal liberties. The regime will find it difficult to drive fear into the hearts of people as Burnham once did.
Third, civil society is now much stronger and will resist. Burnham, for example, had marginalized the private sector and thus weakened any resistance coming from that source.
He had brought more than 80% of the economy under state control. The dominance of the state sector meant that the PNC, under Burnham, could use economic power to control people and prevent resistance to dictatorship. The state was then the largest employer and this made it easier for the dictatorship to force people to be loyal to the ruling PNC.
Things are different now. Political dictatorship is likely to receive a strong push-back from civil society should political dictatorship rear its ugly head again. The private sector is now the dominant in the economy. And it has shown greater backbone in exposing and condemning the rigging of the elections and the failure of the APNU+AFC to concede defeat.
It will also be more difficult to use race as a weapon to divide the people. More than one third of the population is now of indigenous extraction or mixed races. The two main race groups in the country are both minorities. Given the ethnic composition of the population, the race factor will not be as effective in dividing the people as it used to be.
Any resort to political dictatorship therefore is bound to collapse. The writing, as they say, is on the wall for the APNU+AFC. As desperate as the APNU+AFC is, to hang on to power, it will find the task of sustaining a dictatorship impossible.

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

---

---