“…When you want something bad enough to steal//That’s rock bottom//When you feel you’ve have had it up to here//’Cause you mad enough to scream but you sad enough to tear [cry]//That’s rock bottom…” American rapper Eminem’s angst was not political. And yet, these lyrics could very well succinctly sum up not just the current situation in Guyana, but the feelings that situation has given rise to in citizens for whom honesty is not just a buzz word. However, sadly, there is no description for the terrible jolt one gets when one realises that there are some folks who are prepared to go much deeper; rock bottom is not low enough.
Indeed, the tactics employed to date to string out what might very well be the longest election process in the world (someone should really contact Guinness World Records) have shown that there is a new low to which some are prepared to sink. Unfortunately, the implications are that while going even lower is possible, tacticians seem to have not considered the way back. From all indications, this will impact the entire country instead of just those who choose to stand on the wrong side of history. Furthermore, those who choose silence or neutrality in the face of what is clearly an injustice should know that posterity will judge them just as harshly.
There is a saying that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In Guyana, it is obvious that the past is not forgotten, yet it seems there is a compulsion to repeat the mistakes that were made. In 1964, after his party, the PPP, won the most seats in the election, Dr Cheddi Jagan had initially refused to step aside for the PNC/UF coalition whose combined seats gave them the government and reportedly had to be forced to do so by the British government representative.
Between 1964 and 1992, the PPP was outfoxed, though not outnumbered, by the PNC, which ‘won’ all the elections in racially politicised voting, though the majority of voters were of Indian origin and the PPP support base. The late Desmond Hoyte was vilified by some members of his party for agreeing to free and fair elections in 1992, which the PNC lost. By this time too, more non-political, and non-Indian Guyanese were speaking up about the PNC’s illegal and corrupt dominance and some had joined with the PPP as a Civic component.
Over the next 23 years, the PPP/Civic led the country, but over the years its governance was increasingly tainted by nepotism, arrogance, corruption, extrajudicial killings, money-laundering, drugs and gun violence, and ineptitude. Many Guyanese were saying enough but were not prepared to countenance the PNC as an option. Apart from racial politics being front and centre, the scars from the PNC’s tenure were still raw. A third force was mulled and the AFC, birthed by disillusioned members of the PPP and the PNC, began to make small steps towards slaying the race-vote dragon, taking 5 seats in the 2006 elections and 7 in 2011.
In 2015, taking what some political pundits still maintain was a poor decision, the AFC joined APNU, a coalition of the PNC and some smaller parties, including the WPA and defeated the PPP/Civic by 1 seat. However, sighs of relief by those who were seeking change, later turned to gasps of shock when the APNU+AFC not only failed to live up to many of the promises made, including stamping out corruption, but also showed signs of not caring and worst of all, measured their ills against those they had stridently called out the PPP on. Little wonder then that the triumph with which the APNU+AFC swept into power was short-lived. Race remains the life force of politics in Guyana and the coalition, which many wanted to believe had begun to change that stumbled heavily and dropped the ball.
What is obvious is that the APNU+AFC deluded itself into thinking it would have time shift things back in its favour. Not so. Those who were disposed to giving the coalition a chance, were not about to wait two decades to express their disappointment. They did so at the polls, the results of which hang in the balance. At this point Guyana seems condemned to a cycle of frying pan/fire racial politics that tears her people down, rigged elections, and leaders who lack integrity.
Leaders whose lust for power eclipses not only common sense, but rationality to the extent that they are unable to put their people first are the reason the world is also littered with displaced people and refugees. Megalomania and democracy, like oil and water, cannot be mixed.