Dear Editor,
Democracy works. Our majority parliamentary opposition is now one year old. Our dear country, captive for so long to a moribund political system that no longer reflected its aspirations and values, if it ever did, acted decisively last November. Voting tactically to hit as hard as they could, the Guyanese people buried one-party rule, hopefully for the foreseeable future.
The new Parliament reflects the will of the people submerged for too long but now more inclusive, fair- minded, outward- looking, responsible and responsive. It shows every sign of sticking despite the litigious proclivities of the minority government.
The electorate has given President Ramotar and his cabinet room for manoeuvre but not an endorsement the scale of which was within party expectations and to which it became accustomed. The combined opposition is now able to win the day. The opposition MPs owe it to their electorate to continue to seize the intellectual and political initiative and exercise power as creatively and imaginatively as possible. However, they need also to start picking some of the ‘low-hanging fruit‘ and target benefits ordinary impoverished Guyanese can appreciate and readily enjoy.
These bread and butter issues include VAT reduction, increased salaries for public service and GuySuCo employees, a more equitable allocation of resources and a more inclusive system for awarding government contracts. The partnership for a united nation must be seen to have truly won; the ghosts of winner-takes-all politics must now be exorcised.
A disappointment of the magnitude the ruling party suffered at last November’s elections is not just a psephological curiosity. It betrays deep-set trends that have to do with voter maturity and the growing recognition that if we are not all happy we will all be unhappy. The ruling party’s marginal win of a plurality last November was a harbinger of a downward spiral in the party’s appeal and its fortunes at future polls. If the truth be known, party membership is dwindling and ageing. The easy access to foreign and diaspora money to fund the party has turned into a Mephistophelean bargain, excusing the party from the necessity of having a strong grassroots organization and ultimately wrecking its primordial base. It should now be obvious that cheques from a clutch of party-made billionaires do not a political party make.
The party that once boasted its working class credentials is now better known as the party of inequality, corruption and unfairness, and for having systematically created the underlying economic and social conditions. Nor has ethnocentrism proved a certain vote-winner. Despite the efforts of party hacks, paid propagandists, party media and a lunatic fringe, there were no discernible gains from provoking ethnic tensions; rather it was tactical voting that had far more effect. The electorate may have been suspicious of some aspects of the opposition agenda but that emotion was trumped by another: hatred of being marginalized and being eternally taken for granted. And that in turn was trumped by yet other sentiments, remarkably little understood or reported upon – the detestation of inequality, insecurity and unfairness systematically and unrelentingly constructed over the last decade. That was why there was a move towards a government of national unity last November and why this movement will gather momentum in the months ahead.
The task next year will be for the majority opposition to turn its attention to the bread and butter issues and focus on consolidating its base. A government of national unity is around the corner.
Yours faithfully,
F Hamley Case