Dear Editor,
Political parties are there to form governments. Parties therefore cannot and must not relinquish their role to civil society since politics is not civil society’s leading role, unless they are organised into a grassroots mass movement. If this is not so let civil society, if they want to play a role, play a supporting one and not the principal one.
To also entertain the thought that no current politician is qualified to lead the opposition group into the next election is an affront to members of political parties who over the years have voted for their leaders. Those seeking to change this and acquire political power should first enter into politics and have the membership elect them as leaders. It is immoral to sit on the political sidelines and allow the political party and its members to do the spadework, then when it is completed to stride in and say you have what it takes to lead and expect the leadership to be given to you. You cannot vie for the country’s top job without putting in the requisite time and energy.
For those who are saying the PNC, as the major opposition, should not field a candidate to lead the coalition is taking for granted the goodwill of the PNC and its members/supporters. With the largest bloc of votes in any coalition, the PNC has a right to play a leading role in who should or should not be the presidential candidate. Further, there has been oft repeated appreciation for the model of Trinidad, Suriname and Britain, but in these countries it would be seen that the major party was the one that led the coalition.
The recommendation that the racial identity of the presidential candidate is critical to his ability to win perpetuates race-based politics. A candidate should come to the voters based on ability regardless of race. Sasenarine Singh (SN, June 18) having noted what he called the greater “political maturity” of Africans in voting for the AFC to the detriment of the PNC in the last election, compared it with Indians who may take decades before accepting that it is OK to have an African Guyanese president. The recognition by Mr Singh and others that ethnic-political loyalties are a hindrance to removing the corrupt PPP means that there is work to be done to bring the society to a stage where it accepts that wrong is wrong, regardless of race, and knows that the resources of the state belong to all of the people and that the government must be held accountable by all the people. From Mr Singh’s account of bottom-house campaigns the propagation of myths, half-truths and loyalty to the detriment of society is revealed.
In progressive societies governments are held accountable to the law. Persons participate in politics because there are structures which encourage a universal code of conduct and support practices of equality and accountability. Minorities are given opportunities because these nations take proactive measures to ensure that they too get an equal shot, hence we see the election of Africans like Barack Obama in the USA and the Indian Bobby Jindal in Louisiana USA, to name two.
As Guyanese we too should strive to get it right, starting now.
Yours faithfully,
M A Bacchus
