It has recently taken another life and I will not lift the smallest finger to help to prolong the present winner-takes-all political system of governance, matters not who will rule! Those who benefit from it usually fight to keep it and those whom it disadvantages usually fight against it. I believe it was the British government that paid for some of our politicians to go witness the first elections under the Good Friday agreement that ended the winner takes all system in Northern Ireland after thousands of lives were lost in ethnic confrontation. They clearly learnt nothing from that process so here we are again and will always be until we understand and sensibly fix this political system.
Last week, I ended this column by saying that, ‘Ingrained political theory cannot take precedence over the logic of social facts’. The major fact is that peoples of Indian and African ethnicities do not want to be ruled by each other and are of sufficient numbers to make it difficult for either side to rule the other. Universally, in such conditions majoritarian rule breaks down and all the moralizing in the world about the existence of ethnic voting, who is discriminating against whom, murdered whom, stealing elections from whom, and whom should be punished by whom will not change these social facts and their consequences. Furthermore, both of these parties are into massive electoral skullduggery, suggested by the fact that over the years and to this day they have gone to national elections with an electoral register that is substantially bloated. Common sense dictates that one changes what can be changed and if ethnic voting cannot be changed in a timely manner then one changes the way the country is managed.
Over the last ten years this column has argued for the introduction of a consensual form of government as the only sensible alternative for those who wish to move Guyana forward. As such, the present chaos is not surprising and should be used to push the extant majoritarian political system towards a speedy demise, not to help its resuscitation in the forlorn hope that it will produce better results!
From the day APNU+AFC came to government, all the indications were there that it had no intention of leaving. It squeaked into government and knew it did not have a sufficiently substantial political base. Yet it gave itself a 50% pay increase and alarmed even those who had voted for it by saying that it had no apologies to make. It failed to make good on its promise of constitutional reform that would have prevented its constituency from going through their present trauma. Claiming that its intent was to restructure the industry, it threw 7,000 largely Indian sugar workers out of work and thereby closed off all possibility of increasing its support within the largest ethnic group in the country, or at least neutralizing the group. It began to redefine the qualifications for those who could become the chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and then proceeded to unilaterally appoint the chairperson. I have previously pointed to these actions and more and so have no sympathy whatsoever for the present political condition in which the regime now finds itself, and it should seek to rectify the situation.
The problem is that the alternative the majoritarian system has thrown up has a record that is as bad if not worse. Confronted by the social fact of a more or less bicommunal society – subversive opposition behaviour – the PPP/C had the opportunity to try to either create a consensual democratic society or suppress the opposition by using its majority to create an ethnic-type democracy. It chose the latter course, which cost hundreds of lives. I agree with former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds in his claim that, ‘President David Granger’s referral to the deaths which took place in the ten years between 1998 and 2008 as ‘Jagdeo killings’ was misleading (please note; not wrong). According to him a ‘submerged subterranean killing wave has its origin in the rejection of the PPP/C win at our 1997 elections, by an opposing and extreme criminal fringe with ethno-political pretensions and links, which, when our national security forces were not having any success in apprehending them, evoked a similar irregular counter-force. The period from 1998 to 2008 was one of great testing of our peoples and our country. …. Rather than make it appear that Jagdeo and/or the PPP/C was the cause of those troubles, I submit, that it should be recognised that our (PPP/C) handling of that period, though criticised from many directions, saw our nation through as a whole, avoiding the intensified polarization which was intended’ (KN: 02/02/2018).’
I accept that the PPP/C did not begin the problem, but its response to the natural outcome of our type of society was to choose the inhumane alternative that, contrary to Sam Hinds, did not avoid but merely suspend ‘the intensified polarization’ that has again arisen; once more with the loss of life! Furthermore, we have had no assurances that the PPP/C will not attempt to repeat its actions. On the contrary, we are told that it intends to stay in government for 40 years!
In these circumstances can you please tell me why any African seized of these circumstances should support any political theory or process that is likely to return the PPP/C to government? In any case, it is absurd to argue that in Guyana’s context a majoritarian system cannot produce an acceptable government and then take action in the hope that it will do so! In the interest of everyone, the present standoff would best end in negotiations that have as a non-negotiable goal putting an end to the winner-takes-all political system.
Right now, President Granger and his colleagues must be regretting not fulfilling their manifesto promise to introduce a shared governance regime that would have constitutionalised the rights of the major ethnic groups to govern themselves in a consensual manner. If Guyana is to progress, whichever party takes government should immediately begin constitutional reform to establish such a regime. All those who understand Guyana must be aware that it will be retrograde to support in any form the maintenance of the present winner-takes-all system of government.
What is now required is the establishment of democratic transition mechanism: a broad-based government of national unity, co-led by the PPP/C and APNU+AFC and possibly inclusive of the business and labour sectors, with regional and international observers. Such a government should immediately begin to conclude within eighteen months a consensual constitution that is radically inclusive and new elections should be held immediately thereafter.
