By Dr Bertrand G. Ramcharan
Previously Chancellor of the University of Guyana; UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
The electoral season is upon us and it would be interesting to see whether what is on offer from the leading political parties measures up to the nation-building challenges of our country.
Guyana’s predicament is that the African slaves, who gave their lives, their blood, their sweat, and endured all kinds of indignities and humiliations, found themselves, after emancipation, outstripped in numbers by indentured labourers from Portugal, China, and India – especially the last. In the eyes of many Afro-Guyanese, Cuffy, Quamina, and Burnham had led their kin-folk from Revolution to Republic, to use the title of a book by P.H. Daly. Burnham, however, would land them with the Executive Presidency that they now bemoan greatly. History would probably consider this one of his great misjudgments, as it would probably consider as a historic miscalculation the decision of Dr Cheddi Jagan, at the Constitutional Conference in 1963, to entrust Colonial Secretary Duncan Sandys with blanket authority to determine the constitutional future of Guyana.
I knew both of these men personally, and rather well, and have respect for them both. But while we honour them, we must also recognize that, like everyone of us, they were not perfect. Guyana needs to hold on to their positive contributions, note their misjudgments, and negotiate new paths that embrace all parts of our population. We need visions and policies for a new Guyana.
The circumstances that led to the importation of indentured labourers were far from pleasant and the indentured labourers also gave their lives, their blood and their sweat in the development of the country; they also suffered indignities and humiliations – even if not in the same scale as that of the slaves. Jenkins’s book, Coolie Rights and Wrongs, written in 1871, documented the plight of indentured Chinese, Indians, and Portuguese. Most of the Chinese and Portuguese have left the country, and today’s descendants of indentured Indians find themselves in the same quest for dignity and equality as the descendants of African slaves and of the Guyanese population at large. Like many of our Afro-Guyanese who hail L.F.S. Burnham, Indo-Guyanese continue to hail the leadership of Dr Cheddi Jagan.
Our indigenous people continue to suffer the worst economic and social conditions of any group in our country, and they have their aspirations for equality, dignity, respect, and development. In the midst of all of this, Guyanese of mixed ancestry long, as everyone else, for decent life-chances and for the opportunity to develop to the fullness of their potential in dignity and in freedom. This is the diagnosis of our country from which we must proceed.
After a brief period of a united national movement in the 1950s, our country has been tugged between the political aspirations of our Afro-Guyanese population and our Indo-Guyanese population, with Guyanese of mixed ancestry caught in the fray and our Amerindian population emerging into a potential strategic role only recently.
Along the way we have had twenty-eight years of PNC rule that was resented by many Indo-Guyanese and, since 1992, we have now had eighteen years of PPP rule that is resented by many Afro-Guyanese. In making this statement we do not mean to reflect in any way on the patriotism or statesmanship of any of our leaders or on the aspirations of our political parties. We simply wish to recognize in good faith the feelings of many Guyanese in our country and abroad.
Supporters of the PNC and its leadership make many claims about their contributions to nation-building – and we do not take issue with this. The leadership of the PPP and its supporters likewise make many claims about their contributions to nation-building –and we do not dispute this either. We do assert, however, that politically, our country lacks a national consensus and that if we are to go forward as one people, one nation, with one destiny, we shall need to work more consciously at nation-building. It is for this reason that we have offered a series of essays inviting discussion of public policy issues that deserve ventilation in the public discourse in Guyana.
Against this background, we pose the question: what are the leading political parties offering as visions and policies for the future of our country and how do they measure up to the nation-building challenges of our country. We shall take the three largest parties in the current Parliament, the PPP, the PNC, and the AFC. We shall base our discussion on the texts of their Manifestos in the 2006 general elections. None of the parties has so far come up with a Manifesto for the 2011 elections and one of our purposes in writing this essay is to invite Guyanese to watch out for what the main parties will eventually offer by way of vision statements, policies and strategies for forging national consensus in the future Guyana.
The PPP/C’s Vision of A
Brighter Future for All, 2006
The PPP/C’s blueprint for Guyana in 2006 ended with the following vision statements: a vision in which no Guyanese would be imprisoned by poverty and every Guyanese child would have the opportunity to develop into a productive and proud citizen pursuing his or her dream in a free land; a vision where every Guyanese has access to the best quality education and health care, where people own their own homes and live in communities with proper streets, roads, drainage, electricity, water, sanitation and modern amenities comparable to that of a developed country; a vision where our people can enjoy healthy lives in peace and safety in their own homes, where our elders can enjoy their golden years in dignity; a vision where a resilient and competitive economy is created; an economy that can function effectively in a global environment, withstand domestic and external shocks and provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to create wealth and generate well-paying jobs for all of our people; a vision where our development is based on equitable allocation of resources for all of our people and where good governance and the rule of law would prevail.
Three parts of the 2006 PPP/C manifesto, A Brighter Future for All, touch on the issue of nation-building. In the part on Good and Inclusive Governance, the party said that it had worked, after the restoration of democracy in 1992, to create an effective democratic and inclusive governance model and had pursued policies to these ends. It cited as accomplishments, free and fair elections and an improved electoral system; a reformed constitution that it claimed was the most advanced in the hemisphere; greater and more meaningful governance roles for Guyana’s Parliament; special select committees and four new standing parliamentary committees for oversight of the government; financial and fiduciary oversight to establish transparency and accountability in Government’s financial affairs; improved accountability through the establishment of the Integrity Commission, a more independent Auditor-General’s Office, and provisions for the establishment of five rights-based national commissions.
In its vision for the years up to 2011, the Party said that it would work for the implementation of fiduciary oversight reforms; reforming and strengthening the Integrity Commission to carry out its functions of holding public officers to account; continued strengthening of the Office of the Auditor-General; working with Parliament to establish the remaining rights commissions and the procurement commission, as mandated by the 2001 Constitution; and strengthening GECOM to carry out its functions more effectively. The parts of the Manifesto dealing with the development of Guyana’s indigenous peoples have elements of nation-building.
The PPP/C’s vision for the future of the nation thus built on the 2001 constitution, its efforts for ‘good and inclusive governance’, and its ideas on Amerindian development. There were a number of sectoral policies, and the Manifesto ended with a number of rhetorical flourishes by way of vision statements: poverty reduction, quality education and health care, home ownership, a resilient and competitive economy, and a ‘vision where our development is based on equitable allocation of resources for all of our people and where good governance and the rule of law prevail’.
The Vision of the PNC/R, 2006:
Move Forward with 1 Guyana.
The PNC/R’s 2006 Manifesto, ‘Move Forward with 1 Guyana’ offered a vision for a transformed Guyana that took as its starting point a belief in God as the Supreme Master of the Universe and recognition that the onerous demands of managing Guyana required the collective effort of all its people. Its vision included the building of strong families with healthy family values; the strengthening of communities to solve problems at the point at which they emerge; enhancing the education system; reducing unemployment; improving health care; and removing the overwhelming cycle of terror, fear and dependence that the drug-lords and their pushers had introduced into the country. It made a commitment to including and embracing all the people of Guyana, of every political persuasion, race, class and economic background.
It considered that the key to the transformation of Guyana was the full involvement of young people though opportunities to develop themselves intellectually, culturally, socially and economically. The restoration of free education at the University level would be one of its immediate goals. Educational reforms would also include the broadening of the curriculum for technical and vocational and educational skills needed for success in the Information Technology age.
The diagnosis of the PNC/R was that Guyana could not continue in its state of poverty, conflict, stagnation and pessimism. It committed itself to respecting and accepting the divine authority of the Supreme Being; creating a society based on morals and values, including tolerance, mutual respect, care and kindness, fairness and equality, freedom and opportunity; restoring family values; helping to move each and every Guyanese from poverty to prosperity; ensuring that no Guyanese felt marginalized, or was prevented from participating to his or her fullest in the development of the community and country; building on the unique strengths of the people and the country, such as creativity, cultural diversity, natural beauty and strategic location; establishing Guyana as a competitive and viable economic entity in an increasingly globalised and competitive world; reducing and removing constant threats and dangers such as crime, floods, and diseases, to the lives and prosperity of Guyanese; establishing a new form of governance that would eliminate ethnic divisiveness, inefficiencies in public spending, executive lawlessness, and corrupt practices; decentralising decision-making; establishing a democratic system based on the inclusion of individuals, their communities, and their organizations in decision-making, especially on matters that directly affect them; reshaping the educational system into one of excellence and relevance; facilitating private initiative and entrepreneurship as the engine of the national development thrust; reforming and modernizing key public institutions such as the law courts, the public service and the police force; enriching the social life of Guyana by re-emphasizing culture, the arts, sports and other creative endeavours; creating institutions dedicated to research and knowledge creation, where our best minds could deliberate and offer policy advice and ideas to government and other stakeholders.
To encompass all these ideas the PNC/R declared its intention, as a national priority, to update and refine the National Development Strategy (NDS) in consultation with the general public, the private sector, the trade unions and other members of civil society and international stakeholders. The new NDS would be a working document of the country’s collective vision and strategies to guide development in the medium to long-term. It would be crafted and owned by the people of Guyana.
With a view to achieving shared governance or government of national unity, it was willing to share Executive Authority and to explore and negotiate imaginative forms of governance and reform of national, regional and local governments to ensure that the goal of full inclusivity was realized. In pursuit of shared governance it believed that all significant political groups of society must be represented in the national executive decision-making process; measures must be put in place to enable appropriate representation of special groups, particularly Amerindians, women, and youth in the national decision-making process; and the new governance must be subject to independent, powerful and effective mechanisms of oversight and scrutiny.
In pursuit of good governance it committed itself to working to make parliament meaningful; make government accountable to the people; implement all outstanding Constitutional reforms and give life to those already enacted. Its approach to government would be to set clear national policies and goals after consultation with stakeholders; assign government agencies measurable goals and give them the resources to do the job; hold government agencies accountable for performance and results, with incentives for good work; get citizens involved in identifying their needs and in monitoring how programmes in their communities are implemented; paying more attention to how programmes impact on people’s well being; and strengthening public accountability through powerful parliamentary oversight committees and a well funded and completely independent Auditor General’s Office.
The AFC’s 2006 Vision,
AnAction Plan for Change
and Development of Guyana
The vision put forward by the AFC in its first-ever election manifesto was “To Achieve a just, equitable and unified democratic state and developing-nation status for Guyana.” The AFC advocated the following goals: to restore the authority of the National Assembly, and the independence, integrity and confidence in existing state and government institutions; to acknowledge, embrace and celebrate our ethnic diversity; to confront organized crime and redress the breakdown of law and order; to reconfigure and strengthen regional administrative processes and institutions; to enhance and guarantee people’s participation from community to parliament, for socio-economic advancement and equitable socio-economic benefit-sharing; to make substantial investments in education; to restore national pride and dignity to the people of Guyana, and the international respectability of the state.
The stated strategic goal of the AFC was “To acknowledge, embrace and celebrate our ethnic diversity”. It considered that nothing was more important to the AFC than being a change-agent for healing and reconciliation in Guyana. With a view to achieving a united, peaceful, and developed Guyana, it offered policies in the areas of governance, education and culture, and addressing social and economic disparities.
On governance it advanced the ideas of allowing religious and cultural leaders to advise Cabinet on policy matters; de-politicising and strengthening the Ethnic Relations Commission; constituting all the rights commissions; and ensuring that citizen’s complaints against state officials are heard and addressed by restoring the prominence and importance of the office of the Ombudsman.
In the areas of education and culture, the AFC advocated the inclusion of subjects that would lead to a better understanding and appreciation of our origins, cultures, and religions, and civic responsibilities in the national curriculum; establishing research programmes at the University of Guyana to study the causes of ethnic and racial tension and conflict in our society and to make recommendations on how to address them; observing festivals for the celebration of the performing and literary arts; providing government subventions to ethnically and culturally oriented groups to further research and development of culture in Guyana; and establishing a cultural museum of all races and groups to be housed in one facility.
On addressing social and economic disparities, the AFC advocated community peace and reconciliation programmes for settling disputes and differences by peaceful means; reforming the system for granting National Awards, and giving recognition to heroes and leaders; reform of the land and house-lot distribution system to remove and address bias, discrimination, and fraud; addressing issues of ‘ancestral rights’ and indigenous peoples’ land rights; ensuring that when government contracts are awarded a minimum of 50% of contractors and employees live in the region where the work will take place; introducing a national skills training scheme to train people for jobs; and ensuring that all Guyanese have equal opportunities in education, health care, housing and justice.
In concluding this review of the vision statements and policies of the three political parties, we will leave it to Guyanese themselves to judge the extent to which they correspond to the needs of nation-building in our country. In writing on issues of public policy in Guyana we have sought to highlight issues that we think deserve deeper scrutiny in our country. Especially since the electoral season is upon us, we are mindful of the importance of not entering the political fray. We have not, and will not. What we would like to do, however, is to invite the political parties presenting themselves at the next election to pay particular attention in their Manifestos to vision and strategic statements that can help heal and take our country forward with national consensus into the future. And we would invite the reader to scrutinise the forthcoming Manifestos from the perspectives of the need for nation-building and national cohesiveness in our country. In a country such as Guyana, we must consciously foster nation-building and judge our leaders by their performance on this vital strategic issue.