Dear Editor,
The recent ruckus and objectionable behaviour by APNU Members of Parliament in the National Assembly, during the second reading of the Natural Resource Fund Bill, as well as the heated exchanges that took place between protesters and a of group hecklers, during a picketing exercise while the House was in session, was to be expected. These two incidents, while not new to Guyanese politics, should be placed in a national context. With a new leadership ensconced at the PNC, indications are that the politically entangled situation in Guyana could deteriorate. Calls for a discourse, and engagements on different fronts, and in a more controlled and organized environment, to which legitimate stakeholders and their representatives should be invited, including the media, could prove helpful. A turn for the worse would only help to consolidate, a long held opinion by some, in and out of Guyana, that we Guyanese live in a nation trapped in a legacy left to us by our former colonizers.
To place these developments in a national context we must start with the basics. There is national consensus that the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of our country should not be compromised. Nor should our national patrimony be subordinated exclusively to the vagaries of foreign capital. Looking in the rear view mirror, we see the larger picture. Here’s the thing; the voting population of Guyana, as of 2020, was 661,378. In other words, approximately 85 per cent of our total population are eligible to vote at an election. In the 2020 election, the votes cast in favour of the two dominant political parties was – 233,336 in favour of the PPP/C, and 217,920 for the APNU+AFC. The difference in percentage of votes between the two parties was about 7 percent. Over the years, narrow but winning leads, principally in favour of the PPP, has been the pattern of previous election results. Forget about the ‘results’ of elections held from 1968 to 1985.
Those ‘results’ of the PNC were all flawed with bloated numbers because of rigged election after election up to 1992. Since 1964, it has been acknowledged nationally and internationally that the Guyanese electorate is ethnically divided. Following the 2015 election, S/N in its editorial of 21/5/15 headlined; ‘Theme on elections’ stated inter-alia; ‘…there is still a deep divide among the people.’ Ironically, when the PPP is in government, the PNC accuses the administration of racial and political discrimination, and when the PNC is in government, similar accusations are made. This bi-furcated narrative, with emphasis on ethnicity, has become the fulcrum of political discourse in Guyanese society. Racial motives were attached, for political convenience, to the murder of Orin Boston at Dartmouth on the Essequibo Coast and the two Henry brothers at Number 3, Village, West Coast Berbice. The arrest and laying of charges against former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan has been described by one of his lawyers as “a ploy to embarrass another Black man”. Jordan’s arrest is being used to add grist to the propagandistic and ethnically driven vitriol of the APNU.
But there is an international dimension to what we are experiencing, here, in Guyana. Internationally, the emergence of the Black Consciousness movement heralded the beginning of a fight back against accusations, allegations, innuendoes and invectives by the establishment targeting Blacks in many countries. Guyana was not insulated from the evolution of the Black consciousness movement. The donning of the dashiki by men and African dress by women; the adoption of African names, the celebration of Ghana Day and years later, of Emancipation Day and other related cultural events are emblematic of the extent to which Black consciousness took root in Guyana. Progressive Black consciousness at that time, was to find expression in the politics of Brian Rodway, Andaye, Bonita Harris, Dr. Omawale, Marc Mathews, Dr. Maurice Odle, Eusi Kwayana, Clive Thomas and later, Dr. Walter Rodney. We, Guyanese, must not allow our country to be dominated once again by foreign capital, nor to be taken advantage by those who champion a reactionary expression of Black consciousness, and seek to perpetuate ethnic insecurity amongst our people.
Sincerely,
Clement J. Rohee
