THE PROBLEM IS CLASS

Dec 23, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – One of the nauseating traits that have developed is the rigid divide and compartments in which we judge others. This has to do with the nature of local politics.

There are two main political parties in Guyana, both of which draw the bulk of their support from one or the other of the main ethnic groups. The PNC’s support base has historically been Afro-Guyanese. The PPP, since the split of 1955, has been supported primarily by the Indo-Guyanese section of the population.
These cleavages have caused a great deal of problems for Afro-Guyanese who wish to be associated with the PPP, and for East Indians who wish to join with the PNC, now the PNC/R. Once a prominent African is seen as associated with the PPP, he or she is pasted with all manner of ill-meaning tags. The same happens if a prominent East Indian joins the PNC.
But what is sadder is that the viciousness against these individuals derives mainly from the rank and file supporters of both parties. Extreme nastiness is directed against individuals who are perceived to have gone against the grain.
Some Indian leaders within the PPP have been alienated and slandered by PPP supporters. Similarly, Afro-Guyanese who are associated with the PPP are treated with hostility.
Ten years ago, there was a concocted controversy about a mining concession. And it heated up only because some persons saw it as an opportunity to get at one individual whom they disliked because he was then associated with the PPP. Never mind the individual got the concession during the final days of the PNC rule.
The fact that he was no longer associated with the PNC, but had defected to the PPP, made him a target for bad-mouthing. Within the mining, forestry and agricultural sectors, when we deal with personalities, we are deflecting from the source of the problems.
The problem, for example, in the mining industry has nothing to do with the acquisition, partnership, joint venture or sale of interests in the concessions granted years ago to any individual. The problems within the sector are better considered in terms of who are the primary beneficiaries of concessions and how concentrated are concessions in the hands of a few individuals.
We have always had a great deal of minerals in this country. And for centuries, it has been exploited. Yet, Guyana still remains a poor country. So for all the gold, all the diamonds and all the other precious minerals that have been taken out of Guyana, it has done scarcely little for the vast majority of Guyanese.
For all the millions of tons of bauxite that have been dug out of the mines at Linden and Everton and Kwakwani, where is the wealth in those communities? And we can go on in the same vein about timber. How many trees have been felled over the past one hundred years? And what has that done for the ordinary citizen?
Many years ago, Jagdeo jumped on a bandwagon, an international bandwagon. He assumed that Guyana could actually earn money for not cutting down its forests. The country did earn some money from Norway, but that is as good as it gets. The question is where did Norway’s US$250M end up. What has been the impact for the ordinary citizen?
Do you really believe that things will be any different than it was in the heyday of state capitalism/co-operative socialism? Do you really believe that the present model of economic development that Guyana is pursuing will allow the ordinary citizen to become a millionaire overnight as a result of oil?
The problem is one of class and not of race. The problem is who benefits. There is one class that has always benefited, regardless of which government is in power. They held sway over the PNC and they are holding sway under the PPP.
In the meantime, the working class is fuming over fishing licences and all matter of trivialities. Instead of demanding that the resources of Guyana be used more for helping poor people than for the rich, the working class is allowing itself to be divided along racial lines. And while they are doing this, the propertied class is smiling all the way to the bank.

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

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