As we come to the end of the year, we look back on the last twelve months with much frustration and angst–understandably so. Out of the tragedy of the 2020 election has come a rampant dictatorship primed to bulldoze its way to total domination. As with all dictatorship there is a heavy dose of disrespect for all and sundry. Men act like gods with no respect for man, woman or child. The abnormal becomes normal and the immoral become moral. The society is consumed by the dance with danger.
Where does Guyana go? It can keep lurching from one disorder to the other or it can be honest with itself—for once. Guyana has not been honest with itself. Nowhere in the world has a people live, eat and dream race and ethnicity, but deny that it’s a racialized society. From leader to follower our people have lived this lie—with enormous consequences. It has to do with power. When one group has power, it discovers non-racialism and when it loses power it reverts to racialism.
Listen the calls from the Indian Guyanese opinion shapers for Aubrey Norton to spend his political capital on seeking cross-over votes. Led by my friend Ravi Dev, they have developed this thesis that because there is no longer a majority ethnic group, the major parties have to seek votes from the opposite constituency. It’s a neat and nice-sounding formulation that may excite innocent academics, but beyond that it is yet another attempt to dodge the inevitable. Ravi once believed in a political solution outside of the majoritarianism that he now embraces as the solution. How can majoritarianism be the solution in a sharply divided society in which ethnic honor trumps all.
We saw a benevolent Coalition government followed by a racially rampant one. Neither escaped the racial condemnation of the other. PPP leaders wax lyric about how the Coalition did nothing for African Guyanese when they want to fool that community. But in the same breath, they accuse the very Coalition of discriminating against Indian Guyanese. It is this two-mouth politics that has rendered our politics less than honest.
Norton has to beware of these so-called democrats who want to impose a Color Blind democracy on a society steeped in ethnoracialism. They want him to get bogged down in parliament as a loyal opposition only for the PPP to use its parliamentary majority to overrule him. They want him to go after Indian Guyanese votes while neglecting African Guyanese votes. And when the crossover votes don’t materialize they will tell him its because he is too African. They are setting a trap for him. They want him to perpetuate the Guyanese lie.
At the end of the day only a political solution between the two camps would halt the foolishness. The solution has to be based on an equitable distribution of wealth among the ethnic communities. That’s where we have to start. Elections under a Majoritarian system has brought us misery and distrust. Time for elections under a consensus democratic order. Let us share the wealth. Let us share the executive power. Let us share the cultural symbols. When all groups are empowered the academics will follow.
