In considering the 2020 US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Guyana I discerned three inclusions that in the present context are worthy of comment. To me the reports are predominantly fact-based but one could glean some policy positions by what is included and the rare value judgment. The first inclusion refers to the arbitrary arrest of Christopher Jones, a senior member of the opposition, and the search of his home ‘although Jones had a court-issued injunction preventing the search’. The second is a value observation about the role of the media in post-elections Guyana and the third is the comment on the nature of the present government.
The first of the inclusions suggest that the US is aware and is not enamored by the arbitrary manner in which the PPP/C has been behaving towards the opposition and its members since it has been returned to government, and the Christopher Jones case is symbolic of a systemic problem. It could not have missed its notice that, notwithstanding its still tentative legal position resulting from the existence of active election petitions, the PPP government has refused to speak to the representatives of almost half the electorate until they deem it legitimate and based upon its one seat majority, is even threatening to make unilateral legal changes to the electoral system! On the other hand, the final report of the European Union Election Observation Mission identified the bloated electoral list of 660,998 as ‘well above the estimated adult population’. And the Caricom observer team that did the recount after the 2020 elections put the position most bluntly: ‘As a minimum condition of electoral reforms, the Team recommend the urgent need for the total re-registration of all voters in Guyana.’ Yet, not only has the regime not prioritised this issue but by spuriously refusing to engage the opposition it has created a political context that makes difficult the political process necessary to rectify these kinds of situations.
‘The ruling party’s monopoly of state media creates an imbalance in public discourse and tends to give them a public affairs advantage, since the opposition does not have an outlet of its own.’ This references the media context after the 2020 elections and nowhere has the advantage that the regime has been clearer than in the role the private and public media played in relation to the events that took place during the elections.
I have argued in this column that elections manipulation to maintain or establish ethnic dominance should be prevented because it is obstructing the political system from evolving from a bicommunal to a multi ethnic polity. This development is not all it is made out to be because a miniscule political party can, for a considerable period of time, join one of the larger groups and alienate the excluded other large ethnic group. The AFC coalition with APNU was only acceptable because they together promised to share power with the PPP/C, but instead they reneged on that promise and thus proceeded to exclude that party. Now the joinder group has colluded with the PPP/C and usurped the deputy speaker’s position, only contributing to exacerbating the ethnic quarrel. Yet, notwithstanding these disadvantages, the natural growth into a multiethnic polity should be supported and everything should be done to thwart those bent upon stalling or reversing it by way of elections manipulation to establish the kind of ethnic dominance that in modern times has been keeping Guyana relatively backward.
To facilitate this process there must be re-registration and a new voters list. As far as possible this should be based upon biometrics and other such tools to root out such voter harvesting that may have been taking place. The number of constitutionally related elections changes that are required are too numerous to mention but GECOM must be given the power, which its present chairperson has claimed it does not have, to solve all possible elections complaints before determining and declaring the final result of an election. The notion of having the court, by way of an election petition, declaring a government null and void three years after it has been given the opportunity to pass important rules and dallied with the people’s resources, is absurd! Such reforms could also increase the number of constituencies, deal with the party list and plurality systems and post elections coalition.
The PPP/C fought tooth and nail during the last elections not to have a new voters list and nothing suggests that it has changed its mind. The opposition claims to want re-registration and a clean list and should be supported in this goal. I surmise that it will have to be prepared for a ding dong political struggle with the PPP/C to get what it wants. There are 198 methods of non-violent struggle and a 2005 study by Freedom House entitled ‘How Freedom is Won’, which evaluated 67 transitions to democracy over the last thirty years, found that 17 were the product of elite accommodation and 50 were in large part driven by nonviolent civil resistance. Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, in ‘Why Civil Resistance Works concluded: ‘Our findings show that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns’ (Letters, SN: 31/01/2009).
There is no shortage of tools from which to choose to peacefully win the current struggle and facilitate a degree of progress towards a more democratic Guyana.
