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Guyana’s political orthodoxy began in the law offices of Cameron & Shepherd in 1957 when the former Chairman of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham eloquently told his circle of comrades that it was time to form a new party. Following a defeat at the elections earlier in the same year at the hands of the Jaganite faction of the PPP, the People’s National Congress (PNC) was birthed. Ever since the collective political imagination of the people has been caught up in the omnipresent rapture of the metaphysical tribal battle of PNC v PPP. As a result, there has been a consistent prevailing view that this is our destiny and we are resigned to this fate.
However, history has consistently displayed that once internal contradictions exist and there is robust leadership, any crystallized circumstance could become malleable, even Guyana’s political firmament which seems fixed as the northern star.
All blame for this state of affairs tends to be assigned to the people but what they been offered?
STRANGLING THE CENTER
Since the formation of The United Force (TUF) in 1960, the two major parties have mastered the art of neutralizing the threat of the rise of center politics heroes/heroine. How have they managed to do this and engineer the course of history? Firstly, the evidence suggests whenever leaders and movements of consequence emerge outside of the big party structure, they are immediately petitioned to hang on to the coattails of the big juggernauts. In this, they are presented with a simple argument: ‘You will never walk the red carpets of the state without us’. Secondly, if the center starts gaining traction and the leaders are resistant to the aforementioned enticement from the dinosauric political suitors; intimation, threats, assassinations and a plethora of political subterfuge will follow. Thirdly, if third force politics emerges within the walls of Congress Place or Freedom House, every single party statute and the tricks in the books are utilized to ostracize the saboteurs. Because of this, moderates have not been able to get near, much less control the levers of power in the established party structures. It is against this backdrop, political options for the people are denied along with the much-needed heroism.
THE RISE OF RODNEY
No conversation on third force politics is not complete unless there is mention of Dr. Walter Rodney. Perhaps, the best embodiment of the heroism from the center yearned by the people. In this regard, his mention serves to specifically illustrate that once given dynamic leadership, the people of Guyana will and can gravitate to alternatives. With his resume, intellect, oratorical skills, regional and international stature, it can safely be argued that Rodney posed the biggest test for the grip on Guyana by the two parties. Importantly, his platform advocated for unity among the working class people based on economic considerations and not ethnicity. It was not a new message but the vehicle through which it was being carried, gave it much credence and resonance with the people. His assassination on June 13th, 1980 at the energetic age of thirty-nine, has regrettably left historians to speculate what impact he would have had on breaking the domination of the two-party system. Given his leadership over the WPA, it is safe to say, he may have completely changed the system.
THE FALL AND DECLINE OF THE CENTER
The center always falls on the sword of machinations by the big parties, carefully sharpened and glistened due to years of political experience. Peter D’Aguiar was the first significant victim in 1964. After receiving 12.4% of the votes and 7 seats in the 1964 elections, this third force party joined a coalition government as a junior partner. Within months, Forbes Burnham with effortless political skills quickly neutralized this party by dangling carrots at their leaders. By 1968, the coalition broke down and some TUF leaders joined the PNC.
In 1992, the center got excited when the PPP added the Civic component to the party’s title and made its way into government. As par for the course, the group of businessmen and civil society members fell prey to the usual entrapment and fell into the dustbins of history.
If Rodney and the movement around the WPA represented the apogee of center politics in Guyana, the non-delivery by the Alliance for Change (AFC) represents its nadir. This beautiful idea of urban civil society teaming up with heroes and heroines who escaped the wrath of their tribal political appointments and formed a new movement that teemed with the potential to end the two-party fatigue of the Guyanese people, quickly and tragically subsided. After all the cataclysmic promises, the conception fell victim, yet again to the usual which has been skillfully mastered by the big parties.
Also, on the heels of this, the center was tricked yet again by the emergence of numerous small parties in the recently concluded disputed elections. It was swiftly revealed that it was all mirage well-orchestrated. The people were tricked yet again and their two-party fatigue has now morphed into center-politics fatigue.
Now, they need a hero/heroine but given all that I have mentioned, it will be a herculean task.
