Dear Editor,
I have made a financial contribution to the WPA elections campaign fund. It’s a measure of my continuing attachment to the bedrock political culture of that party, my admiration for the perseverance and quality of its current leadership and the fact that it took a bold step in 2011 to join in the formation of APNU which paid dividends. I am not unaware of the fact that the WPA occupies a lowly state in the electoral order, but I remain faithful to its rich legacy and its ideals and hopeful that it continues to impress its worth upon the nation and within the new electoral coalition.
The opposition base of 2011 has been fortified in more than one way by the involvement of APNU in a greater alliance with the AFC. This greater alliance, both as an electoral and prospective governing coalition, has raised us to a higher stage in the culture of coalition. Ponder the perils and fear the fragility, but if it works the harvest could be plentiful!
Here are some features in the current circumstances leading up to the forthcoming elections that may be worth considering.
- There is an equal chance for the combined opposition, led by APNU+AFC, to bring to an end the minority authoritarian rule of the PPP. The expedient of a coalition of opposition parties, driven by a compelling sense of urgency and by national outrage, has been a practical, necessary step to defeat a mischievous Burnhamite constitutional device fondly adopted by the PPP. The constitutional provision allows a party with support from a minority of the electorate to take control of executive power. With discontent at its most intense level since the nineties among sections of civil society, the opposition has been energized first by the formation of APNU in 2011 and further by the construction of a new alliance, APNU+AFC.
Win or lose, this alliance has potential beyond the 2015 elections. And I hope the constituent elements understand this potential. Since either side may emerge with a razor-thin majority, taking into consideration the extent of fixed loyalties, the resourcefulness, vigour and efficiency of the electoral organization leading up to and including the day of voting and vigilance over electoral malpractices may make the difference.
- The WPA and AFC have enhanced their status in the country and have survived in the face of known adversities afflicting third parties, and their importance in the new political configuration and their role will be vital for a transformative culture in the country and in the PNC.
- There has been missing in the political environment the liberating feature of a dynamic political process, that is, the total freedom of the voters and people to scale political fences and change political loyalties. This missing feature has left us with a fake democracy characterized by robotic electoral re-sponses and intimidation and manipulation by those in control of the state.
- This historic step in the realignment of political forces (APNU+AFC) inspires political rebirth. It also provides a stronger platform for launching an assault on the traditional divide and for dismantling the stifling dominance of the PPP/PNC political corporate monopoly. The prospect of escape from sterile long-term rule by one party or another is exciting and inspiring.
In the rearrangement of executive powers APNU and AFC have locked themselves into a power-sharing regime that would be difficult to dismantle. In its ethnic impact, it is easier for Indo-Guyanese to defy the ghosts, demons and dragons that would be dragged out by the PPP from the closets. The content and context of the reconfiguration of executive powers between APNU and AFC will strike a great blow for entrenchment of the culture of coalition politics which offers a solution to the dogged concern over ethnic insecurity. It should not be obscured that the door has not been closed to inclusion of the PPP in a coalition government if the opposition wins.
- Apart from the reassuring commitment to new executive power arrangement and also to a coalition in governance that will involve important sections of civil society, Indo-Guyanese are hearing from the APNU+AFC, team a formidable array of Indo-Guyanese leaders. These are leaders of experience, political intelligence, stature and they have been involved in historic struggles for freedom and democracy. They will not be dismissed by cheap epithets hurled against them by the PPP storytellers.
- Eventually Afro-Guyanese traditionally bound in political loyalty to the PNC will share the benefit. They will be in more intimate discourse with parties other than the PNC. They will be presented with the opportunity of voting for several parties in a combined list. Another gain for Afro-Guyanese is that other parties can now freely cross the borders of the ethnic reservation and share ideas with traditional PNC supporters and this in turn may give greater impetus to initiatives in self-evaluation, reformation and transformation, and also in the resolution of internal conflicts within the PNC. There is a gateway to a new experience – a serious and bolder conversation across the political divide, notwithstanding the old fixed cleavages. These elections are, among the diverse interests of the nation, a negotiation over the only realistic option for the nation, that is, reconciliation.
- The PPP on the other hand remains in the backwoods, isolated in a desolate and dark corner, disengaged from essential dialogue, outside the political dynamic, still defending one party ethnic dominance and keeping sentry at the frontiers of its ethnic territory. Against this is mounting evidence of a growing consensus involving political parties and elements of civic society on the need for a government of national unity. This could prove for the PPP an irresistible force after the elections. If it wins it will be foolhardy if not downright dangerous for it to try to prolong one party rule, and if it loses, irresponsible and even self destructive, if it rejects an invitation from a victorious alliance to join a government of national unity.
- In the circumstances in almost all dimensions the political initiative has shifted to the opposition forces. The PPP is accused of assorted malpractices and even criminality in government, the illicit amassing of wealth by its functionaries, harnessing the resources of the state, government agencies, including the media, for party agendas, financial mismanagement, suspect and corrupt deals involving government projects, being driven by and practising the principle of dictatorship of the party, defying and undermining parliamentary norms, eroding the integrity and security of the state with close relations to drug barons and other criminal elements, letting loose a reign of lawlessness by subverting security forces and the judicial system. The list appears endless.
- The misconduct and repeated discourtesies affronting the nation by its leaders has brought into sharp focus the importance of personal political culture, morality and integrity in leadership and the need for institutionalized constraints on the abuse of power, office and position by executive office-holders, party leaders and functionaries.
- We should feel some sense of relief that imperial powers may have been disengaged in acts of sustenance of the current regime.
How have the roles flipped in the evolution of politics in Guyana! The irony!
I cannot ignore the complexity, partisan compulsive thrusts and arrogance in party politics, but I trust that if the alliance win the elections, they will spare us cheap conventional haggling during their tenure in office, and instead implant a wholesome political culture, promote justice without vengeance, exercise power and authority wisely and with humility, assemble the best talents for communal service and reconstruction, reform and strengthen the institutions of governance, justice and national security and attend to all the priorities in improving the economy and quality of life of our people.
So that we could embrace the spirit of a nation revived and collectively journey to a better place.
Yours faithfully,
Moses Bhagwan
