Dear Editor,
Mixed Races and Amerindians (MR&A) do vote for the two race-based parties in Guyana in the PPP and the PNC. Guyana will not change unless MR&As who comprise a combined roughly 26% of the population stop voting for race-based parties. It is that simple. Unlike the staggering majority of Indians and Africans, the overwhelming majority of MR&A voters do not vote for the PNC or the PPP purely or significantly out of race or ethnic considerations. There is no deep emotional or psychological attachment to the PPP or the PNC for the overwhelming majority of them. In fact, MR&A voters have shown great flexibility in political choice since the 1950s. They are our greatest hope of breaking free from racialised politics in the short term. And they must give this country a chance to break free from the shackles of fifty-plus years of ethnic politics on November 28.
The PPP and PNC campaigns in 2011 have focused on each other and in doing so have focused on traditional ethnic constituencies. The negativity of the PPP‘s campaign and the outlandishness of the PNC‘s promises are major turnoffs to many MR&A voters. The PPP and the PNC locked at each other’s throats have ignored the demands of MR&A voters for a new message and new kind of politics. The PPP and the PNC/APNU cannot deliver the kind of change MR&A voters desire. The campaigns of the PPP and the PNC confirm they are not changing. Actually, the evidence indicates they are incapable of changing. Despite their numbers, MR&As remain window dressing in the PPP and the PNC while the real power lies along ethnic lines. A case in point is the selection of Sam Hinds as the PPP’s PM candidate ahead of a vibrant Amerindian woman in Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett. The traditional ethnic parties see MR&A voters as political pawns who must be controlled or materially bribed to keep their votes intact. A classic case is the dependency syndrome the PPP has created in many Amerindian communities where Amerindians cannot even sneeze on their own lands without permission from some government official. Amerindians have been politically trapped in their own lands by the PPP.
With growing populations while the Indian and African populations steadily decline, and in possession of the fastest growing percentage of young voters less connected to racial voting, MR&A voters can make that change Guyana needs to happen for a better Guyana. They hold the balance in this race-voting cauldron. If they staggeringly vote for a party other than the PPP or the PNC such as the inclusive ideology of the AFC, Guyana is politically changed forever. That is a guarantee, a given. Demographics suggest that Mixed Race and Amerindian citizens may become the combined majority ethnic populations in Guyana in approximately 25 years. Thus, MR&As voting for non-race parties is not just an act of change now, it is an act that guarantees a better future. All it takes is some ink and some willpower to change fifty-plus years of racial misery and ethnic shame. Amerindians and Mixed Races don’t even have to speak about it. They can in fact lie about it. The truth should be found in the ballot box.
In a nation fixated with race and scarred by ethnic conflict, it may be up to those who have no political base, no trapped psyche, no fear-determined mindset, and emotional freedom to express political liberation to change this situation for the betterment of us all. I hope Amerindians and Mixed Race voters do something for this nation that this country is desperately crying out for on November 28. I sincerely hope they do.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
