A rudimentary knowledge of Guyanese political history would suggest that should they enter the political race later this year, Mr. Mr. Nazar Mohamed and son are unlikely to receive a significant number of votes from the constituencies of the main political parties, and far less from the Indian-orientated People’s Progressive Party (PPP). They are more likely to get some votes from the supporters of, what PPP Member of Parliament Mr. Sanjeev Datadin is reported to have called the ‘fertile ground’ of the ‘unlettered’ and lazy, i.e. gullible, opportunistic and possibly stupid, supporters of the African dominated People’s National Congress (PNC) (VV: 15/03/2025).
A few weeks ago, David Hinds on his Pol. 100 enquired how I view the quarrel between the Mohameds and the PPP wherein the former claim they are being badly treated by the latter and Mohamed junior is dabbling in anti-PPP politics. The position expressed in the first paragraph outlines my response only to emphasise that in recent times the PPP has been encouraging the formation of small parties that can wrench votes from the PNC, and notwithstanding the Mohameds’ public quarrel with the PPP – indeed because of it and the previous close relations – so far as I am concerned the Mohameds intervention is possibly another such underhand PPP machination.
Note too: it does not matter if I am right or wrong about the Mohameds’ motives, since they are only likely to take votes from the PNC, their intervention will benefit the PPP. I say this as new evidence has emerged that gives some credence to my position as it casts doubt upon the severity of the quarrel between the Mohameds and the PPP. The documents ‘reveal that not only have the Mohameds been major beneficiaries of government contracts, but they have also made substantial financial contributions to the PPP. Evidence includes a $21 million government cheque dated December 30, 2024, and a $20 million donation to the PPP, evidenced by a Citizen’s Bank cheque from May 2024.’ (VV: 17/03/2025).
A bit of political moralising would not be out of place, so let me say that having been sanctioned by the US, after extensive multi agency investigations for allegedly engaging in gold and drug smuggling, not politics, Mr. Mohamed and his son’s involvement in the political process cannot improve and may well only help to further diminish the process. They should stay out of the political arena until such time as they have used all available legal and other processes to resolved their dispute with US. With the best of intentions, being able to influence some in Mr. Datadin’s ‘fertile ground’ would not enhance the political process.
Dr. Hinds took umbrage with Mr. Datadin’s contention, largely, I believe, because it suggests a natural rather than, more properly, an historical/sociological result of the policies of the PPP. I have argued before that largely because of political socialisation in Guyana, Africans have more than than Indians been a ‘fertile ground’ for those trying to win ethnic cross-over votes because their sub-culture is far more ethnically politically liberal. Added to this, for almost three decades, the PNC was not as dependent on African votes to win elections. While the PPP had nothing but the demonisation of Forbes Burnham, the PNC and Africans with which to hold its ethnic base.
Now, if after three decades of PPP rule a substantial number of youths of the opposing ethnic group is ‘unlettered’ and ‘unemployed’ in a manner that benefits the ruling ethnic group, and that ruling group cannot demonstrably show what it has done to prevent this malfunction – and indeed, it is more simple to demonstrate the opposite – how is it possible to blame those who have been claiming that the regime is racist and Guyana is heading towards being an apartheid state, i.e. one in which Africans are deliberately being dominated by the oligarchy of an ethnic group that has captured the state?
Since about the turn of the century, in response to changing ethnic demographics, the PPP has enhanced its approach to undergird this drive for dominance. Today it only represents the largest ethnic minority group and so is bent upon subverting and/or fabricating small parties to fill this void.
For example, this column has repeatedly argued that given the ethnic configuration of Guyana, the Amerindians are the poorest people and will remain so unless they have their own independent representatives at the decision-making table. Paul Hardy and his Guyana Action Party showed that this is possible, but he suddenly disappeared from the scene. Lenox Schuman of the Liberty and Justice Party appeared but took the personal opportunity to tie himself to the PPP by taking the deputy speakership of the National Assembly that historically had gone to the official opposition, becoming some kind of aviation advisor and now appearing largely to make noises in support of the PPP!
A New and United Guyana (ANUG) took the same route after promising during the elections campaign that it would take nothing from the government. It was also the first party to make the absurd claim that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) did not have the ‘authority’ to take into consideration the fraudulent behaviour arising from the 2020 recount process, and the chairperson of GECOM adopted this position after a few more such missives (SN: 03/06/2020). Now the PPP is clearly supporting the refusal of Ms. Asha Kissoon of The New Movement to relinquish the position of deputy speaker that it should not have offered to the small parties in the first place!
In normal situations, the political virtue touted for smaller parties is their supposed capacity to help to hold the government accountable, but this is insufficient in Guyana where the foundational difficulty is ‘who rules’ in the context of severe ethnic alienation.
If the smaller parties do not singly or collectively win sufficient votes to prevent one of the larger parties from taking both the legislature and the executive, as happened in 2011, whether they join the government or not they will at best be mere ineffective moralizing members of the political establishment! If they collate with one of the larger parties to give it a working parliamentary majority, this will be leaving out one of the larger ethnic groups, much as happened with the APNU+AFC coalition, with similar if not worse consequences.
A post-elections coalition in Guyana can only work adequately if it contains the two larger ethnic parties. Small parties should perennially seek to position themselves by using their power to become disrupting agents of radical constitutional reform. And if they win sufficient seats to hold a parliamentary balance, they should be immediately disruptive and support any party that wins the presidency only if it immediately begins to make constitutional changes to introduce appropriate ethnically inclusive governance.
