THE PLAYBOOK

Dec 04, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – When in Opposition, the PNC/R and its sidekicks are predictable. They have a playbook which guides their political activism and which is foreseeable and unchanging.
The first tactic which is employed by the PNC/R is the use of the race card. The idea is to foment racial antagonism so as to undermine the government and keep the country divided in the hope of restoring their dwindling political fortunes.

The key is to either create an incident or use an incident and twist it into a racial narrative. When Hoyte lost the 1992 elections, the PNC/R used a land dispute at a place called Rosinante to stir up racial animosity. It did not succeed but it became the basis for labelling the then PPP/C government as being discriminatory to Africans.

After the PNC/R’s failed attempt to steal the elections of 2020, it used a horrific incident on the West Coast Berbice to foment racial animosity. And now we are once again seeing the race card being played by some of its overseas based supporters who are falsely claiming discrimination. They are joined by locals who without a shred of evidence, speak about the establishment of an apartheid state.

In support of its wild claim of racial discrimination, the sidekicks of the PNC/R allude to some 2,000 public servants who were dismissed. They have never presented a list of the names and ethnicities of the alleged 2,000 public servants.

Public servants enjoy security of tenure and can only be dismissed by the Public Service Commission. And the Public Service Commission is an independent constitutional body clothed with autonomy and has NOT dismissed 2,000 public servants.

The PNC/R argument is invalid. Its logic is flawed: workers have been dismissed from the public service; the public service is dominated by Africans, therefore the dismissals are race-based. Not necessarily!

The conclusion does not necessarily flow from the premise. The fact that contract employees may have been terminated since the PPP/C took office does not automatically establish that these terminations were based on race. It is a convention that political appointees lack security of tenure and can be removed upon assumption to office of a new government. The APNU+AFC Coalition had done the same when it assumed office in 2015. It would be interesting if a comparison can be done between the two lists of terminated persons. The Coalition also sent home thousands of sugar workers but the supporters of the APNU+AFC do not concede that these terminations were based on ethnicity.

The claim of racial discrimination however is the traditional battle cry of the PNC/R. It uses this to mobilise its supporters, and to restore whatever is left of its tattered political credibility. It also plays the role of victim in seeking to internationalise this contention of racial discrimination.

The second tactic from its playbook is for the PNC/R’s sidekicks, particularly in the trade union movement to claim ethnic economic marginalisation. The most often used basis for this is the so-called preference given to the Indian-dominated sugar industry as opposed to the African-dominated bauxite industry.

The facts however do not support this assertion. For more than a decade, under PPP/C governments, the faltering bauxite industry was sustained by subventions provided by the State. In fact, on a per capita basis, Region 10 enjoys a far higher degree of support from PPP/C governments than many other Regions, as was so compellingly argued by former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds in a letter – “Linden/Region 10 received greater attention, subsidies from the PPP/C” – published in the Stabroek News of October 6, 2016.

The last income and expenditure survey also debunks the claim of ethnic economic marginalisation. In a study undertaken by Dr. Ramesh Gampat and entitled “Guyana: Population, Poverty and Ethnicity”, it was found that there is greater income/consumption inequality amongst Indians than Africans. And more Indians lived in poverty than Africans.

The third tactic from the PNC/R’s playbook is the mushrooming, every time the PPP/C is in office, of extremist talk show (and now social media) activists. They spew their almost daily poison of division and animosity, reverting to sweeping and unsubstantiated generalisations. These extremist elements have a large following who tune for their daily fix of vitriol.

The PNC/R’s playbook of political activism is predictable. And it is predictable because the PNC’s and the PNC/R’s attempt to benefit from electoral rigging always leaves it in a crisis of legitimacy.

In addition, in order to deflect from its sordid electoral past, the PNC/R finds itself having to resort to the same old ignoble tactics of claiming racial discrimination and ethnic marginalisation. Unable to offer credible opposition to the PPP/C, its sidekicks resort to extremists to drool out their daily drivel on talk shows and now on social media.

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