Dear Editor,
I take note of a quote from Mr. Ogunseye’s letter: “Dev and his associates are essentially advocating for the retention of the ‘winner-takes-all’ governance system, content with Africans in state institutions carrying out the dictates of the Indian-led PPP government” (SN August 23rd).
Guyana is a racially-divided society. Guyanese people need to find ways out of this condition. These things do not change overnight; they evolve over 2 – 3 election cycles. What cements and perpetuates this condition are the ethnic parties PPP and PNC [I acknowledge here that these parties and their supporters deny this basic fact – but that is the hardened perception over the last 70-years]. PPP is an Indian party, PNC African. That must change – if Guyana will ever get a chance to overcome its racially-divided condition.
The letter writer Ogunseye and his opponents, Dev, Ramharack, Bisram, are discussing these hot button issues using an Indian narrative/African narrative template. Rights for Indians, rights for Africans. Indian triumphalism/African triumphalism have become the political ideology of the nation’s political parties. This ideology will keep Guyana locked down in this never-ending struggle for racial power.
These “ethnic narrative” discussions are futile, – and will solve nothing. It is an avoidance of the issue. It is hard to mistake the issue. Mr. Ogunseye made it plain when he wrote: “. . . retention of the ‘winner-takes-all’ governance system, content with Africans in state institutions carrying out the dictates of the Indian-led PPP government”. Ogunseye is talking about Constitutional Reform, Indians holding executive power, Africans powerless, doing clerical work in the bureaucracy.
Guyana became racially-divided only when PR was introduced. It was introduced for the ad hoc purpose of pushing Cheddi Jagan out of the way. Cold War – containment of the spread of communism. And, now we are left with the legacy of PR: all Africans vote PNC, all Indians vote PPP – and this now inherited political culture only perpetuates the racially-divided condition. List System – African List, Indian List.
Replace PR (List System) with 53- Electoral Districts and FPTP system. Let each ED elect its own Member of Parliament. Let the 53-member independently-elected parliamentary body elect/appoint a PM and his Cabinet to run the Executive branch of govt. This one change – going back to the system Guyana had before PR was imposed – will allow the Guyanese people to evolve out of this hardened racially-divided condition.
A society that votes at such excessively high rates (95% strong) for ethnic parties is a system that will not endure. Guyana must move with a sense of urgency to change its system of electing its government. Discussions on African/Indian narratives are futile. A dead end.
Sincerely,
Mike Persaud
