Guyana 60th Independence

Dear Editor,

 May 26 marks the 60th anniversary of Guyana’s independence, a moment for reflection, analysis, and an honest assessment of whether we truly share a common vision of the future. It is not enough for us to take comfort in the fact we have survived six decades as a fractured society under a our winner-takes-all governance system, one that  subsequent reforms to the 1966 constitution failed to adequately address. Both major parties, the PPP and PNC, have a history of paying lip service to executive Power-sharing and meaningful inclusive governance. 

The PPP continues to justify its position with the opportunistic claim that there is not enough trust between the two parties (and I will add by extension the major race groups). In recent times, the PNC has had a better record than the PPP on this important national issue, with Hoyte’s historic declaration that power sharing is an idea whose time has come. After Hoyte died, the new PNC leader Robert Corbin pursued the matter with Jagdeo without success. The PPP insisted that there is a need to build trust, ignoring the fact that it is precisely the lack of trust that makes a solution to this national problem necessary.

In a recent interview, to mark the 60th anniversary of independence, Elder Hamilton Green took the opportunity to remind the nation that Burnham and Jagan had committed to a Guyana of equality and the use of the nation’s resources to improve the lives of the people. He accused the PPP’s leadership of betraying that noble independence aspiration. The inherent logic in Green’s criticism is that the government in office has a greater responsibility to provide leadership on national unity and economic justice among the people. I concur. Given our history on these matters, the opposition, more so, the PNC/APNU, has a responsibility to provide leadership in this important area of national life and to protect the interests of its constituents. 

The unwillingness of the opposition and, more importantly, the collective African community to invest political capital to end winner-take-all governance exposed the African people to an existential threat, given the new challenges of Guyana becoming a petro-state with an entrenched racist apartheid PPP regime.

While we need united action to move the country forward in the context of the new challenges, Guyana’s oil wealth, unresolved claim by Venezuela to over two-thirds of our territory, the historic racial and political division, and the unrestricted inflow of migrants, united action seems more remote than likely. This intervention seeks to refocus the nation’s attention on the race/political division and our winner-take-all governance system, which our rulers often treat as trivial matters. Their approach deprives the nation of true national cohesion and, more importantly, denies the young generation of a profound understanding of the issues inherent in these contradictions derived from slavery and colonialism that continue to make us vulnerable to the negative influences of internal and external forces, opening the possibility of us losing our country. If our independence is to have real meaning, it must address the historical injustices inflicted on all races in Guyana and confront the enduring consequences of slavery and colonialism, with priority to the Indigenous and African communities, which have been the most affected. In this letter, I seek to argue that, given the present balance of economic, political, and social forces, the prospect of unity across racial and political lines will remain elusive in the short to medium term. 

It is unlikely that the Indian community will mount significant opposition to the PPP for known historical and political reasons. Meanwhile, indigenous peoples are principally concentrated in the hinterland, which limits the effectiveness of their sustained political action outside the electoral process. This leaves the burden largely on the African community. In the short to medium term, African political action or inaction will play a decisive role in determining Guyana’s direction. If the African community accepts continued marginalization, it risks paving the way for the broader domination of Guyanese society by the PPP and its racist apartheid leadership. 

While party politics is here to stay and will continue to be the major force driving our politics, there is an urgent need for the development of community politics across the board. Given the existential threat facing the African and Indigenous communities, their action is urgent since time is not on their side. As an African political and cultural activist, I am conscious of the concerns our community has about our future, given the PPP rule and our winner-take-all governance system.  At the UN forum on the Decade for Peoples of African Descent, the Guyana government argued that the current conditions of Africans in Guyana have nothing to do with the PPP government but rather stem from decisions  our ancestors made at the end of slavery to cultivate provisions instead of rice. This represents a disgraceful rewriting of our history that many view as part of a broader racialized political agenda and one that reinforces longstanding African concerns about PPP rule. 

The refusal of the PPP regime to embrace a policy that oil revenue be used to correct historical injustices among our people, their attitude on this issue is that of the colonial rulers that might is right, and the damage to the African and Indigenous communities is a matter for the “dustbin” of history. In the case of Africans, we were enslaved for more than 250 years and played a central role in building Guyana and making it habitable yet received no compensation for our labour. We were denied the opportunity to accumulate generational wealth over centuries. This historical injustice remains a major factor shaping our present economic and social condition, despite attempts by those in power to dismiss or minimize its impact.  Africans must resist and reclaim political space beyond election contestation. That process must begin within our communities by giving concrete expression to our concerns about our future in a country where we played a major part in building. We must take to the streets to demonstrate our resistance against political domination and economic marginalization in oil-rich Guyana. 

Gone are the days when the conventional view was that African dominance in the public sector, the army, and the police force counterbalanced Indian control of the government, and their dominance in business, and agriculture. Whatever comfort the two communities may have had based on the above construct, the present reality is vastly different. There is no area in the economy and society that Africans had dominance pre- and post-independence that has not been replaced by Indians and non-Africans. Even in the army and police force, where we continue to have dominance, the PPP government replaced the top leadership with Indians or non-Indian supporters of the ruling party, neutralizing African political advantage. In the public sector, the situation is worse; not only are the top positions held by Indians, but the number of employees is now around 60/40, a slim African majority that is daily eroded. The result is that Africans own less than 10% of the economy in oil-rich Guyana. There is no commitment by the government to correct this grievous situation. Ironically, President Irfaan Ali, addressing the Joint Services march for the 60th Independence anniversary, made up primarily of African troops, could only offer them his and the government’s thanks for their service to the nation.

I end this letter by restating an observation:  the choice before us as a nation is to ensure that “King Oil” doesn’t do to us what ‘King Sugar” once did. In the era of King Sugar, we had little control over our destiny since we were subject to British rule. Today, however, we claim to be an independent nation in charge of our future.  Wherever oil leads us will ultimately be the result of our own decisions and actions. If we fail, we will have to confront the reality of a self-inflicted demise.  To the African community, I say this:  our destiny is in your hands. 

This is my reflection on the nation’s 60th Independence anniversary. 

Yours truly

Tacuma Ogunseye