– stakeholders note need for strong civil society

Concerns about Robert Corbin’s stewardship of the PNCR have raised questions about the state and effectiveness of the political opposition, while the need for a strong civil society to protect the rights and the interests of the people has come into sharp focus.

Robert Corbin

Since the start of the month, Corbin’s leadership of the main opposition party has been under severe scrutiny. It started with the decision to remove former party executive James McAllister as a Member of Parliament, using controversial recall legislation. The backlash followed almost immediately, leading to Vincent Alexander’s very public split from the party, with the former vice-chairman leading a walkout of several former executives while declaring the need for the party to embrace a new political culture.

McAllister himself accused Corbin of putting his own interests before the party, leading calls for his resignation.

Alexander told Stabroek News that there is no unified opposition, although the attitude of the government to selectively cooperate with the parties has the potential to drive them to work together. According to him, the opposition needs to mobilise on issues or risk getting stuck in the historical politics of the major parties. However, he situates the division in the existing ethnic nature of politics, saying that it prevents a basis for the opposition to mobilise the masses. “We have to get people to cross ethnic divides,” he explained, stressing the need for them to encourage the recognition of diversity and commonalty. Though he noted that the WPA managed to bridge divides, Alexander reminded that it had the support of the PPP, which saw the advantage of supporting a middle-class Afro-Guyanese concentration that could pose a real threat to the PNC administration.

Vincent Alexander

Alexander has expressed concerns about the current direction of the PNCR and its need for retooling in order to rebuild. Additionally, he thinks that the PNCR and the AFC cannot find common ground, because of the latter’s election platform which emphasised its difference from the main opposition. Meanwhile, the PNCR harbours a certain level of distrust of AFC leader Raphael Trotman’s past with the party and his decision to breakaway from the main opposition. “It’s not a relationship of confidence and mutual respect that you would need for an effective opposition,” he says, drawing attention to the PNCR’s treatment of the AFC in the allocation of funds for party scrutineers during the national registration exercise.

He also pointed to the Rise Organise and Rebuild Guyana (ROAR) movement, noting that party leader Ravi Dev seems to have retreated. He said though Dev is critical of the government, he gives the impression that the opposition has an agenda that does not reconcile with those of a fundamentalist Indian party. (Everall Franklin currently serves as an MP for the GAP-ROAR coalition that won a seat at the 2006 elections.)

‘Groundwork has
to be done’
According to AFC Chairperson Sheila Holder, the party is still working towards being a viable alternative to the two major parties, facing financial constraints while trying to increase its support base in a society dominated by scepticism and fear. “We need to do much more but it costs money,” she said.

Sheila Holder

The party was very fortunate after it launched in the lead up to the last general elections. Its message of change helped the party to raise enough funds to open offices in all the regions, though it was not easy to convince the business community to contribute to a new and untested political entity in the run up to the polls. The party could not afford to keep all the offices open and it is now concentrating on community outreaches as well as parliamentary work to increase its support base.

“But groundwork has to be done,” Holder explained. “There is no alternative to groundwork.”  At the moment, she said, the party is doing as much as it can, especially given its limited finances. Recent visits were made to Mahdia, Rupununi, Corentyne, New Amsterdam, Leguan and Linden, while the quarterly national executive meetings are held in different parts of the country to reinforce the party’s view of itself as a national force rather than an entity representing a provincial constituency.

In spite of its progress in the last three years, the party continues to encounter reminders of limitations.

Holder spoke about a recent visit by the party to Mosquito Hall, Mahaica, where a few people were not even aware of the party and its work. In addition to the need for more visibility, she said the party faces the pressure of the need to meet the high expectations to citizens, particularly in depressed communities, accustomed to being recipients of government largesse.

As a result, the party has been making donations where possible while trying to use the Parliament to help address some community problems rather than using its visits as mere photo opportunities. One of the examples of this approach was the motion in Holder’s name on television access in Linden. It was ultimately defeated but residents of the community have been commending her and the party.  Holder said there is also a need to disabuse the average citizen of the dismissive view they might harbour about the work of the Parliament. She described it as being challenging at times, as a result of the frustrating process of dealing with the PPP/C but she emphasised the importance of finding innovative ways of utilising the parliament. “But I believe more can be done, if we get more people on board,” Holder said.

And herein lies another challenge for the AFC. Holder blamed it on the behaviour of the PNC and PPP/C, which she said has discouraged people from becoming involved in political activity. She added that there are also people in both the public and private sector who are being cowed from political participation. As a result, the party has been warning people that they become part of the problem when they allow themselves to be robbed of the right to participate in finding solutions. She said, “The only way to go is to convince people that the change has to start with them.”

Alexander said upheavals might be beneficial to the opposition if they regroup and prepare to work together as a united opposition force.

Civil society
In a press statement responding to what were dubbed “attacks on the party and its leadership,” Corbin indicated that despite the concerns about the viability of the party, “it will survive the storm and like the phoenix, will rise from the ashes to lead Guyana to sound development.” At the same time, he raised the issue of the necessity of civil society’s involvement in helping to confront national problems.

Alexander agreed that a strong civil society movement could make an impact on the political landscape, though he said it is currently susceptible to its own institutional weaknesses and pressure by government. According to him, civil society went under during the PNC administration and has never been able to get back on its feet. Further, in the present environment, he said, it is difficult since groups like the private sector are still heavily dependent on the state because of its large role in running the economy. To illustrate the point, he recalled the Social Partners initiative that attempted to resolve the political impasse against the backdrop of the post-jailbreak crime spree in 2002. The movement was led by the Private Sector Commission, the Guyana Bar Association and the Guyana Trade Union Congress, which held multi-party consultations. Despite his best efforts, Alexander says, Social Partners Chairman Peter de Groot was the victim of PPP/C character attacks. “It drove him back and he never ventured out,” he said. “It was a matter of survival.” He added that the recent efforts by civil society in the National Stakeholder’s Forum have also resulted in little. Alexander also noted that civil society has also proven to be just as susceptible to failures of governance as the administration has been; it ultimately undermines the efforts to force the state to be accountable. He cited sporting organisations as well as trade unions as prime examples and suggested that the problem might be inherent in the country’s political culture, in part informed by the experiences with the British. “It’s not about the will of the people; it’s about who has power,” he said.

Meanwhile, the AFC is preparing to embark on a public awareness programme in order to help mobilise civil society. In this regard, Holder explained that while the party has a duty to hold the government accountable, it does not absolve the individual, private sector, the religious community or any other members of civil society from their duty. “They have a duty too and to the extent that they renege on their responsibilities, they make the job of the opposition more onerous,” she said. “It is not possible for us to do it all and therefore we can only hold the government accountable within the limitations of the system.”

Holder said what is needed is civic movement like the Guyanese Action for Reform and Democracy (GUARD), which sought to encourage citizens to participate actively in the electoral process, independent of the political parties prior to the 1992 general elections. In its day, it served as a platform for civil society activists to lobby the government.  Now, Holder noted, the young generation expected to take up the activism is more likely to hop on a plane and leave. In this vein, the AFC hopes to encourage activism by empowering the citizenry through education programmes about their rights. “People don’t understand their rights,” Holder pointed out. “And if people don’t demand their rights, they lose them.”