Dear Editor,
I have to give it to the President and to the PPP. He and them really got what he wanted from this visit. Beyond the claim of reconciliation and healing, this was all about political mileage. You see the PPP knows in its heart that Africans will never in any majoritarian way vote for the PPP. No matter what it does. Africans know it too because of what the PPP has done. So this visit was about politics. It was about sending messages to the PPP’s predominantly Indian constituency which happens to be swooning in apathy and veiled anger at the corruption, mismanagement, waste and excesses of the PPP.
The idea here is to trigger a reaction that pushes that constituency in a manner that convinces them to vote the Cup. By claiming it comes in peace, the government makes the first step in extending an olive branch, which appeases the olive branch elements of the PPP. By claiming it did more for Buxton than the PNC and trying to link the crime there to the PNC, the PPP knows this is exactly the prevailing opinion among many Indians and exactly the kind of confirmation some within that constituency want to hear.
More importantly, the President’s action was intended to create an equal but opposite reaction. It got a lot of Africans upset. Many ridiculously so. This is what the PPP wants. It wants upset Africans and nonchalant Indian voters suddenly reacting to the African reaction. The intent is for those nonchalant Indian voters to get off the fence and back into the game supporting their party which is being attacked by some Africans over what is being projected as a simple visit.
It is how the despicable twisted, racialized politics are played in this nation. In this deeply divisive ethnic playground, the reaction creates action. It does not matter that the reaction is legitimate. All that really matters is that the action translates to viable political power. This one will be milked to the max next year during heated electioneering.
Who really cares that the President visited Buxton? What does this have to do with the price of bread and the struggles of ordinary Guyanese including Afri-cans?
The political gain of this visit has already been realized by the PPP. While Africans have a right to feel how they want about this visit, it changes nothing. The President of a country could visit anywhere he wants within that country. When he chooses to visit on the eve of an election is a different matter.
This reaction is exactly what the PPP political machinery wanted. It will push some of its constituency who were wavering firmly back into their fold marking their X besides the Cup. If this visit was ignored there was no political traction to be gained. But some simply cannot see the forest for the trees. Ever.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Maxwell
