Dear Editor,
May I join the many Guyanese and organizations that paid tribute to the Reverend Bishop George. May I also express my deepest sympathy to Mrs Sheila George and family. He was an outstanding Guyanese spiritual leader who had a deep commitment to civic engagement, the promotion of human rights, the strengthening of civil society and the restoration of democracy. I met Bishop George at his residence several times. I approached him on behalf of the Democratic Labor Movement (DLM) to convince him to agree to be considered as a consensus candidate for the slated 1990 elections. The DLM had tabled such a proposal at the Council of Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD).
What was the background to this proposal? Prior to the 1985 elections, the DLM called on the contending parties to go to the elections as a united front. That call was rejected publicly as the PPP labelled the DLM as right-wing, pro-American, etc, etc. I recall, I was in Dominica boarding a LIAT flight and there was PM Eugenia Charles on the plane. She immediately greeted me with “Paul, I see the communists rejected your call for an electoral alliance.” Eugenia Charles was a Cold-War warrior. Yes, at the conjuncture of the early 1980s, all the major parties were defined as Marxist, Marxist-Leninist or Revolutionary Socialist. Guyana had been trapped in the Cold War since 1953. The PPP was affiliated to the Communist International (pro-Moscow), the WPA evolved and sought membership in the Socialist International and the DLM was affiliated to the ODCA/Christian Democratic International. The leadership of the DLM was also 90% in the leadership of the National Workers Union (NWU). The NWU was affiliated to the Confederation of Latin American Workers which was originally the Latin American Confederation of Christian Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour (which was founded in 1920 as the Catholic Trade Unions). I sat on the Executive of the CLAT and on the Council of ODCA, elected by labour unions and political parties, from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The DLM had worked day and night among the grassroots during 1982-1985. In March 1984, the DLM launched at Tain on the Corentyne, a national campaign for free and fair elections. Then in May, its international campaign was launched in Barbados. In Linden, DLM in 1985, slated 13 candidates and positioned 33 polling agents and enjoyed popular support on the West Coast, East Coast, Canal and Adelphi, Canje. It was therefore no surprise that Dr Festus Brotherson (former New Nation editor) wrote that the DLM had double figures in the 1985 elections.
On elections night, on the radio and at a public protest meeting immediately after the elections, the DLM called for a United Front. My experience since 1968, across Latin America-Caribbean (as a student, academic, labour and political leader) taught me about real world anti-dictatorial struggles. I completed many, many missions across Latin America and the Caribbean in the late 1970s and 1980s. The most important lesson was that national security-fascist dictatorships could only be brought down by ideologically pluralist united fronts. This was the lesson of the Second World War also. And so, the DLM under my leadership prepared a document in which the United Front in Uruguay and other examples were analyzed. In that document, we argued that a united front was possible and feasible should we unite around one single objective: “free and fair elections”. We argued that the main contradiction in Guyana, at the time, was not capitalism v socialism, but democracy v dictatorship. We also insisted that each political party had an exclusive right to their international affiliation and world view. Additionally, we recommended that consideration be given to a consensus candidate that could overcome what we saw as a major obstacle to win free and fair elections. We stated that we faced a three dimensional problematic: ethnic, ideological geopolitical. A DLM delegation took the document to the various political parties and lobbied for the formation of a United Front. In January 1986, the PCD was founded by PPP, WPA, NDF, PDM and NACCIE. The PCD stands as the longest political united front in the history of Guyana and made an outstanding contribution to the achievement of free and fair elections in 1992. The PCD influenced a paradigm shift in Guyanese politics.
The DLM formally proposed to the PCD that we meet Bishop George and obtain his agreement to be a consensus candidate. We informed the PCD that we were of the opinion that if Bishop George was approached by all in the PCD that he would seriously consider. During 1986 and 1989, there was no movement on our recommendation. However, Dr Jagan in 1989 requested that Fizool Baksh (DLM Representative on the PCD and later Treasurer) accompany him to meet Bishop George. I will not go into the details of that meeting except to say that Dr Jagan updated Bishop George on PCD discussions regarding a consensus candidate and wanted to know if he was interested. At the same time, Dr Jagan explained his qualifications as a suitable consensus candidate with experience in government and a long history of struggle. There was no categorical yes or no statement from Bishop George in that meeting. However, may I point out that in various meetings Bishop George made it clear to me that he would not like to be perceived as usurping Dr Jagan’s position as a bona fide future president. He also understood the merits of the DLM’s proposal and analysis. The DLM proposal highlighted that we had to take into consideration the Cold War’s implicit geopolitical implications and the ethnic problem manifested with a highly politicized Afro-Guyanese military that could make transition to a democratic government very difficult should an Indo-Guyanese be the presidential candidate for the PCD. In any case, we were told in the PCD that Bishop George was not categorical about being the consensus candidate and we had to move on.
Myself and the then Vice President of the DLM, began to conduct informational interviews with other potential candidates including a former Mayor, who told us that he was in retirement. When we asked for a recommendation, his response was “…if you had asked 15 years ago, I could have identified a school principal, a local government leader, a permanent secretary or a professional, but the PNC regime destroyed our people’s leadership.” In the absence of an alternative to Bishop George, Claudius London and I visited Moses Nagamootoo one early morning at his home. While he was showering and we sipped the coffee his wife offered us, we conducted a conversation about an alternative. We discussed a proposal within the context of the DLM’s united front document that was similar to Panama, where there were three candidates as a team that reflected ideological plurality. It was against this background that the DLM supported the proposal to have Dr Jagan, Dr Clive Thomas and myself at the head of an electoral slate for 1990.
The last time I saw Bishop George was in 1992 on the streets of Georgetown with Father Campbell-Johnston, former head of GISRA, and other religious leaders, showing solidarity and appealing for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Nehru Tennassee