Dear Editor,
Sultan Mohamed and others like Ravi Dev say federalism is the answer to Guyana’s ethno-political woes. Mr Mohamed wants to implement Switzerland’s model of federalism in Guyana. These proposals are nothing but racial offerings and not really solutions but more avenues to ethnic power domination. Federally dividing Guyana will result in the replication and enlargement of racial voting from the national/ federal level to the state level.
Using Switzerland’s model of full sovereignty beyond federal law to the federal states is in effect creating sovereign countries at the state level. This makes it easier for these states to break away or disobey the federal government. A PPP loss at the national elections could see a new federal government ignored by the states with Indian-dominated governments. Those states could break away with simple referendums voted for by the ethnic Indian majority. An Indian-dominated Berbice government, for example, could foment balkanisation and break away to join Suriname or Brazil if the PPP loses the national election and another party such as the PNC wins power. Afro-dominated government in Demerara could spur the breakaway from the rest of Guyana. It is evident why this federalist proposal is really racialized propaganda hiding behind political rearrangement with potentially destructive consequences.
You cannot federate an already fractured country with hostile neighbours maintaining territorial claims and without military presence sufficient to defend that entire country. It is an open invitation for annexation, invasion and balkanization. The risks are too great. You cannot federate in an environment of intense racial politics, internal division and wholesale societal dissension on race. This fracturing will lead to heightened ethnic marginalization, minority alienation and additional layers of corruption and autocracy at the provincial levels to compound an already festering sore at the national/federal level. It will hasten the economic decline of the country. It will cause mass migration and upheaval.
Sultan Mohamed stated, “Inevitably federalism will become the correct solution to ensure African people run their own affairs just as it would ensure others do the same. When race is viewed as the ultimate problem it must also be the final solution.” (‘Inevitably federalism will become the correct solution,’ SN, November 21, 2012). This is simply nonsense. Those who can only see their own ethnic utopias through misguided lenses must learn to look around. Guyana is not ready for federalism. There are too many fissures and systemic weaknesses in the society and country, and too much opportunism among its leaders. Add the palpable lack of nationalism among our politicians and this is a perilous suggestion. To utterly disregard the existing local government electoral system and refuse to reform it to strengthen local communities and instead venture directly to federalism and partition should be exposed for what it is.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
