By Ryhaan Shah
The intent of the PNC was always clear, even before President David Granger made the unconstitutional move to install retired Justice James Patterson as the GECOM Chair. And it was clear even before he unceremoniously shoved aside the Cummingsburg Accord. The intent was there in the elections campaign slogan that called on the electorate to forget the past. I and several others, all surviving witnesses of the PNC past, warned of the impending dangers if the unrepentant PNC were elected into government again.
There is no satisfaction in any of us now saying, “I told you so.” The promised change would have taken Guyana forward, and many took the chance and ignored the warnings; and the PNC, in a con job that did not require much trickery beyond the pretence of agreeing to a Coalition Government, regained power.
So, too, did Burnham in 1964 gain power through a coalition with the United Force. That coalition lasted no more than four years, but expect from the AFC leadership no principled behaviour as was displayed by UF Leader Peter D’Aguiar, who resigned rather than work with a corrupt PNC Government.
Guyana voted in 2015 to give presidential power to a man whom the US assessed to be an “anti-East Indian racist”. The cable bearing that description of then Major David Granger was sent from the US Embassy here to the US State Department on Thursday, June 27, 1974 at 7.30pm. It’s all on Wikileaks.
The Americans knew who they were dealing with then and who they are dealing with now. Now, as then, American interests are always paramount. Now, as then, democracy and those values of fairness and the rule of law are only to be upheld when they align with American interests. It was not a Freudian slip when US President Donald Trump remarked in answer to a question about Russia’s human rights violations: “Why? You think we’re so innocent?”
We in Guyana know they are not innocent. We suffered for it, but if it is fundamental to politics to work to further your agenda, then both the PNC and US are in lockstep with the accepted canons of political strategy. And given the PNC’s history of electoral rigging to hold power, there should have been no expectation of fair play.
For the PNC, political power provides the chance to right perceived wrongs and to grant social and economic advantages to its supporters, African Guyanese. Just as their violence against Indian Guyanese at the turn of the century was justified on the basis of their alleged marginalisation, constitutional violations are also justifiable if they are politically expedient to the party’s agenda.
In defence of his choice of the octogenarian Patterson, Granger misled the nation, stating that Patterson had been a Chief Justice in Grenada, and that he was neither a PNC party member nor a Christian activist, two characteristics that should have disqualified him by Granger’s own announced measures of what he deems “fit and proper”.
He has stated publicly that he intends to follow in Burnham’s footsteps. He has made a good start. As a soldier, he obeys orders. As a Burnhamite, he obeys the orders of a jumbie, and if the court rules in his favour, he will return our country to a Burnhamist style dictatorship.
The PNC’s paramountcy will favour its African Guyanese supporters, as before, even though the institutionalised racist policy of granting them jobs, scholarships, loans, etc., from state resources ultimately failed because it is nigh impossible to make one group secure and superior while marginalising another.
Social and economic linkages cannot be so easily disconnected. Either the whole prospers or the whole fails; and Burnhamism, despite Burnham’s best efforts, failed. In the end, it was nihilism writ large.
Already, Indian Guyanese are facing discrimination reminiscent of that era. But many survived the hardships then, and even started up businesses by becoming traders of banned commodities and of items that were in short supply.
Being independent is nothing new for the Indian Guyanese community. From the very first, after serving their indentureship, our foreparents worked on the land to make a living. Being unqualified for clerical or professional positions, they reared cattle, planted rice and vegetables, and started agri-businesses. Their entrepreneurship eventually led them into every area of commercial activity.
They got no loans or training in business management, but inherited a culture that valued family and hard work, and respected wealth creation as a foundation for the security and stability of home and community.
Whatever lies ahead, our spirit of independence will carry us through again.ain.
