Over the recent Diwali weekend, I came upon a plethora of utopian and outlandish media contributions, two of which I will consider below, that brought to mind the recent reprint of ‘It’s the Institutions, Stupid: The Real Roots of America’s Political Crisis’ (Julia Azari, Foreign Affairs Magazine, 11/12/ 2025).
Azari argued that most observers would agree that American democracy is in crisis, although there is not yet a consensus of what is the precise cause and how the situation can be fixed. ‘For all the talk of unresponsive politicians and apathetic voters, the democracy part of the U.S. political system may be in the best shape ever.’ She argued that voter suppression remains a major problem generally and that while are far from perfect, things are better.
From her standpoint, American democracy has become dysfunctional because there is a mismatch between its political institutions and current political realities: the structures of American democracy have failed to keep pace with the changes in politics and society. This has occurred in three areas: ‘political representation remains tied to states and districts, even as the political conversation has gone national; elections remain relatively de-emphasized in the constitution, even though they have come to matter more and more in practical terms and institutions remain formally colourblind, even though race shapes so much about contemporary political life.’
Her final area of concern caught my attention, for in Guyana’s context it largely encapsulates the others. Given its constitutional and ethnic inheritance, political conversation and representation in Guyana has always been tied to race/ethnicity and to this day the political system has failed to adequately reflect this reality. Instead it has developed a pretensive colour-blindness that is unsuited for democratic development and is largely responsible for the existing dictatorship.
Over generations, political parties have been deliberately solidifying their ethnic support with the PPP using its last two decades in government suppressing Africans and Amerindians to drive them into its ranks. The recent elections have demonstrated that where Africans are concerned it has failed and no amount of wishful thinking about the impact of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) can refute that fact.
GHK Lall was easily the most idealistic of the contributors to the political discourse. According to him, darkness has overtaken Guyana. ‘On this day of light – Diwali – darkness has overtaken and overwhelmed Guyana. Deep, dense darkness devours the hearts of too many.’ This darkness is to be found everywhere: State House, Freedom House, Congress Place, etc. ‘The higher the office the thicker the darkness!’ The politicians and their many sycophants control the resources of the state and have mangled the minds of the Guyanese people for so long they have come to believe that their evil ways will continue forever.
Sycophantically praising autocrats by way of written and verbal contributions is commonplace under dictatorial regimes and while Mr. Lall did identify some of the malignancies of the current regime he appears to be suggesting that Guyana’s salvation rests in some kind of divine intervention. Thus, the evildoers, schemers, falsifiers, manipulators, i.e. the sorry cast of characters that blight this land, will not succeed. ‘I light a candle for them all, say a prayer, too. Not for them to be smitten, but that some little light will shine on them, soothe their tormented souls’ (KN: 20/10/2025).
Of course, put simply, and I am certain that Mr. Lall’s prayer is in the context of the divine advice that help comes to those who help themselves and that, therefore, what is also required is enhanced political activism to establish adequate institutions that will hold governments accountable.
Mr. Neville Bissember’s contribution is easily the most outlandish. He was ‘shocked and surprised’ that having lost the elections in Linden to WIN, APNU was of the opinion that it still had a role to play in and was relevant to the administration of Linden’ (SN: 19/10/2025). ‘[D]oes APNU not realise that its role or relevance in a community or any electoral district in Guyana is a matter for the residents themselves to decide, … In fact, the party’s role and relevance, if any, in Region 10, had already been decided by the electorate on 1 September 2025.’ Surprisingly, after severely criticising APNU behaviour, he proceeds to argue that ‘If the truth be told, the fault lies not with APNU, but rather with our electoral system’ i.e. ‘It’s the institutions stupid!’
What prevented Mr. Bissember from using the ‘truth’ and thus avoiding berating APNU is a mystery. But perhaps it has to do with his deficient understanding of the nature of representative democracy. Representative democracy is cast in the extant customary/legal framework, a most important element of which is the protection of minority rights in its broadest (geographic, ethnic, etc.) sense. This is best done at almost every political level by the representatives of the various constituencies, be they individuals or parties.
Notwithstanding the dictatorial nonsense the PPP is peddling, parties only represent part of the country and the majority winner does not win the right to exclude the representatives of minority from national or regional decision-making. Party manifestoes are only broad frameworks around which national decision-making should take place. Even the Westminster parliamentary system that we inherited has committee stages within which the government and the parliamentary opposition parties are expected to cooperate and formulate government policies that reflects the interest of the nation/country.
To suggest that small parties have no role to play in local or national governance after the elections is absolute nonsense. Indeed, in the individual constituency-based system Mr. Bissember appears to prefer, by way of post elections negotiations an independent representative occupying a single seat can negotiate his way to becoming prime minister.
But I do agree that Guyana’s closed proportional representation list system needs to be reformed, and this has for decades been on the agenda of almost everyone concerned with constitutional reform. The venom Mr. Bissember wasted on the APNU would have been more accurately directed at the PPP. For much of its existence the PPP has been warned that the logical and empirical results of the policy it is pursuing will lead towards the establishment of the existing dictatorship that it is busy attempting to sell as a democracy.
