Dear Editor,
I have always maintained this position about the AFC. You cannot get two men who learned the tricks of their political trade from the two biggest con organizations ever in Guyana in the PPP and PNC and expect anything different. Actually you cannot have two men who have lived their entire lives in Guyana to think outside the mental prison of a Guyanese mentality and truly comprehend and practise democracy. It is no wonder the AFC is looking strikingly similar to the PPP and PNC when it comes to selecting presidential candidates. The only thing that separates them is their commitment to multiracial politics. But is that achievable on a foundation of undemocratic principles and practices? The AFC came bearing promises of real change. Some people took a big chance on them. They have yet to demonstrate how they will deliver such change.
The first place I look to those who promise anything is their conduct, behaviour and actions. Because the AFC does not have a 28-year or 18-year track record of misery, this is the only place we can look to determine whether this upstart can deliver on the promises they make with ease. The track record in the past 4 years has not been impressive.
The only thing the public can judge the AFC on is how it does business and more importantly, how it does business with the power it has. In this regard, the AFC has failed. Now, the PPP and PNC have been bigger failures but I am not into measuring failure. Failure is failure. The PNC has virtually the same system of selection as the PPP and the AFC, and still has Robert Corbin as party leader. The same applies with the PPP and its fifteen committee members handpicking the nation’s presidential candidate. The talk of Bharrat Jagdeo playing Prime Minister on the slate while someone else runs for President would be a kick in the face of democracy and should not be entertained. Both of these parties have serious problems with their internal selection process, although the PNC’s process on paper (there have been recent allegations of internal rigging) appears to be the most democratic because of its broad consultation with party members. The failures of PPP and PNC governments are known. The AFC has no such history. We can only assess the AFC based on their actions since 2006. Undoubtedly, they have made several major blunders. The Gaumattie Singh fiasco, the alleged Trotman vs Ramjattan bickering over power and Michael Carrington’s public protestations over the current system of presidential selection are big blows to the AFC.
No matter how its spinners bowl and even if they have a crumbling final day wicket, the AFC’s process is no different from that of the PNC and PPP. The rotation setup is sound only if the rotating candidates are elected by the broadest possible spectrum and representation of the party. Instead, an Executive Committee not unlike the PPP and PNC’s central committees handpick, recommend and endorse their selections. The rest of the party and its voting bloc must swallow it. It does not matter if the rotating candidates are of different races when the process is undemocratic to begin with. Once the underlying democracy is breached, the claim of full ethnic representation or power-sharing on the slate cannot cure it. If it starts wrong it is wrong. The end result will be wrong. In a nation such as Guyana where any power corrupts absolutely it is vital to start right.
All three major parties have flagrantly disreputable systems of selecting leaders. Somehow the men who start these parties and help to build them believe they own them and must therefore, control them. They are afraid of letting democracy replenish the party for the good of the party and the nation. This is where the problem lies in Guyana. It comes from politicians who live and grew up in Guyana. That fundamental indecency regarding power is a direct product of the environment. So, unless the AFC changes its ways and quickly, it is ‘one of them,’ albeit on the fringe. Its only glimmer of hope is its verbal commitment to multiracial politics. That is a clear advantage over the PPP and the PNC in a nation battered by ethnic strife. But democracy must be the bedrock upon which racial harmony could be practised. Harmony never flourishes in autocracy.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
