Dr. Desmond Thomas offers insights on electoral reform

May 28, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Kaieteur News – I am writing this letter in response to Mr. Kissoon’s article entitled “The Electoral Reform Group: Part of Guyana’s dilemma” (Kaieteur News, May 24, 2021) in which he sets out to discredit the Electoral Reform Group on the grounds that its members are unknown and were silent on attempted vote rigging following the March 2020 elections.
Mr. Kissoon’s ad hominem comments are disappointing coming from an established media voice, raising questions about his motives and how genuinely interested he is in finding solutions to our delicate social and political problems. His analysis conveys the impression that Guyana’s political problems started on March 4, 2020. As a friend of mine has commented, it is “disingenuous to suggest that March 2020 is the yardstick to measure the role, legitimacy or credibility of any person or group who may seek to bring improvements to an obviously broken system.”
By way of introduction for Mr. Kissoon’s benefit, I am an economist with a claim to being among the leading economists in the Caribbean Region based on my academic, professional and publications record. I have taught economics at universities in four countries, also serving as Economic Advisor (Ag.) to the President of Guyana, and as a Statistician at the CARICOM Secretariat. Since returning to Guyana after 17 years at the IDB, I have kept interested in current affairs, writing letters to the Press (including Kaieteur News) and doing part-time teaching in the Department of Economics at UG.
Mr. Kissoon’s criticisms suggest that I am compromised on the issue of election rigging but nothing can be farther from the truth. As he is no doubt aware, agitation on election issues did not start in 2020. In the period leading up to the 1992 General Elections in Guyana, while working as a lecturer at The University of the West Indies, Jamaica Campus, I joined with Mike James, Mohan Jagnarine and Sarah and Raymond Eytle and others in forming Friends of Guyana in Solidarity. Among our activities, this organisation agitated for ‘free and fair elections’ in Guyana, hosting presentations to the Guyanese community in Jamaica by political leaders including Dr. Jagan, Professor Clive Thomas and Paul Tennassee. My subsequent appointment as Honourary Consul to Jamaica by the Jagan Government was no doubt recognition of that contribution.
The issue of election rigging has troubled me from the inception. It is a betrayal and violation of Guyanese by fellow-Guyanese, regardless of ethnic origin, that undermines the very foundations of a stable, progressive Guyana. This issue troubled me all through my one-year tenure in the Office of the President in the eighties.
In December 2019, I published a book entitled: “Electoral System Reform for a Diverse Nation, The Case of Guyana.” While acknowledging the defining ethnic dimension in Guyanese politics, this book challenges common narratives of division, offering an optimistic vision of electoral system reform based on a social and political dialogue process. It emphasises that strong citizen-based representation must play a central role in this dialogue. Looking at leading politicians’ recent statements, it is evident that this book is having a profound, though unacknowledged, impact. Mr. Kissoon would do well to read it.

Sincerely,
Dr. Desmond Thomas

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