Dear Editor,
Having read the latest of Cheddi Jagan Jnr.’s increasingly frequent contributions to your letter columns (published Wed 20th April), I was reminded of Ronald Regan’s simple rebuttal to a lengthy criticism from Walter Mondale back in 1984. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders and quipped, “he’s at it again”.
Indeed Mr. Jagan has been at it for some time now: bashing the Alliance For Change and its leadership; and I can’t help wondering whether he, like Mondale, is considering a bid for the Presidency.
Eighteenth century writer Thomas Paine wrote, “government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil”. I may be wrong, but based on his previous writings and television appearances it is my opinion that Mr. Jagan shares this view and has logically extended it to include the entire political opposition — save perhaps his own Unity Party.
His political philosophy is not, however, what concerns me. What concerns me are his constant efforts to discredit the leadership of the Alliance For Change. In doing so he disregards the simple fact that Sheila Holder, Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan together created what is now Guyana’s largest multi-ethnic political party during a period when he himself was on the political scene and failed to galvanize any significant support.
His reference to “the trio who lead the AFC and dominate that party’s hierarchy with no real level of democracy, except the rotation of the trio, playing musical chairs with the Guyanese public” shows an understandable ignorance of the party’s affairs. I wonder, however, why he would wish to make those comments without the benefit of better understanding. Is he suggesting that it is normal for persons to form a political party, lead it through an election and then decline to lead it or run as candidates again within the first five years? Or is he hinting that there were other more popular candidates within the party who were somehow sidelined by the power-hungry leadership at its two successive national conferences and one special convention? I’d love to know.
Jagan’s letter starts out as a response to one by economist Tarron Khemraj, and in it he accuses Khemraj of forming conclusions biased in favour of the AFC. He himself then goes on to conclude that the AFC leaders are “former communists”: Trotman and Ramjattan by virtue of their respective associations with the PNC and PPP, and even more illogically, Holder, who “for many years lived with the flaws created by individuals like Trotman and Ramjattan and their respective ties with Stalinist socialism/communism”. This is a bit like calling a black South African a racist for living for years with the “flaws” of the apartheid system in that country.
If indeed Mr. Jagan is interested in “real answers for our future” then I will attempt to give him one. The successful future of this country lies in the people of this country using the power provided under the Constitution of Guyana to reject those who have not delivered the desired results, and doing so not once but every single time an election is held. This is the simple solution to many of the Governance problems facing this country. It is not rocket science. It stands to reason that a government that expects to be held accountable will deliver more than a government that expects to be returned to power on the grounds of a large ethnic voting bloc.
Despite what they would like to achieve or become both the PPP and the PNC are race-based political parties. Further, during their prolonged and continuous governments, neither the PPP nor the PNC succeeded in improving lives — even within their respective ethnic support bases. Instead poverty and underdevelopment continue to plague most of our country. The fact that these two parties have still managed to gain close to 90% of the votes cast at the last four general elections is a clear indication that Guyanese are not using the vote as a tool for national advancement, but rather as a guard against political domination by “the other ethnicity”.
The AFC has no ethnic support base and as a government cannot expect to be re-elected if it does not perform. This alone sets it apart from the two larger and older political parties. Further, with its platform of Liberal Democracy and Good Governance and its focus on private sector-led industrial development, it has attracted the support of professionals in every area of expertise necessary to effectively run this country.
So while Jagan continues to heap scorn upon the AFC and its leadership, myself and many other members of the AFC will be spreading the message of change across the length and breadth of Guyana in the belief that Guyanese deserve more and better options for democracy.
Yours faithfully,
Dominic Gaskin
