Guyana: Waiting to become a nation

“A nation is an imagined political community. … imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. … It is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings” (http:// www.nationalismproject.org/ what/anderson.htm).

20131106henryNotwithstanding the utterances of some of our politicians, a small content analysis of the letter columns of our dailies suffices to indicate that although for generations we have collectively inhabited this physical space now known as Guyana, the country is still far from being a nation. What we occupy is an extremely fractured political space constructed upon massive levels of stereotypes and prejudice. Much of this has, for political reasons, been deliberately contrived and handed down from generation to generation and thus has prevented the development of that single imagined community with “deep comradeship” upon which so much else depends.

Jonathan Matusitz made an interesting and relevant observation about prejudice. He claims that it “is a false belief based on faulty generalizations about members of selected racial and ethnic groups. Prejudice is based on stereotypes and can impede effective and efficient intergroup communication. What makes prejudice so sinister is not just the act of prejudging a person or a group, but also the fact that it is inflexible, defends privilege, and even after evidence to the contrary will not change, so that the post-judgment is the same as the prejudgment.” (“Relationship between Knowledge, Stereotyping, and Prejudice in Interethnic Communication:” Pasos, 2012).

Most of our leaders have had aspirations towards nationhood but ethnic prejudice has effectively blocked our capacity to develop in our individual minds that image of our communion. Forbes Burnham had a deep desire to mold us into “One people one nation one destiny.” His establishment of national events and symbols such as Mashramani, Cuffy, Enmore Martyrs, the Umana Yana, liberal support for creation of ethnic/religious holidays and encouragement of cross-ethnic participation in all these events are examples of his aspiration. But Burnham was too much of a divisive leader to be able to induce an all-round national identity and cooperation. His dictatorial mode of operations stood partly upon an ethnic foundation and he gave the PPP both a reason and an opportunity to massively spread an admixture of anti-PNC/African propaganda. In the absence of a national political will, his effort at nation building was doomed.

Cheddi Jagan had a much better chance, which, had he lived longer, he might have seized. Even among his enemies, many of whom have claimed that he brought his downfall upon himself with his dogmatic adherence to Soviet Marxism, out of office, he carried an aura of the underdog who was consistently being wronged. Furthermore, he had much greater cross-ethnic support than Burnham upon which to capitalise. But in office, once he reconciled himself to the capitalist medicine of the international financial institutions with which he could have only tinkered, he sought redemption in the creation of a utopian New International Human Order, which, for all intents and purposes, was a gigantic enterprise intended to redistribute world resources in the interest of the proletarian poor. Unfortunately, Jagan’s kind of analysis gave more saliency to class than race.

The political culture of racism has also infested families, who have been transmitting negative notions of race and ethnicity through the generations. Of course, this is not unusual. In Northern Ireland, a society not unlike ours, children as young as five have voluntarily been involved in communal violence. Long before they get to school, children are positioned – if not deliberately made – to inculcate the prejudiced ethnic views of their parents, which may stay with them all their lives. This is why last week I noted that: “Many young people may not have any practical experience of living under past regimes but perhaps they experienced worst: a socialization process in which what life was under previous regimes and most likely will be under similar future ones, had been very propagandized!”  The result is that instead of being a nation, Guyana may best be viewed as a country of at least three nations, each with its own cultural icons, religions and celebrations.

It has been suggested that if racial prejudices are to be significantly reduced, reduction efforts must, among other things, be backed by strong national political will; interracial contacts that allow individuals to gain more knowledge about other ethnic groups must be sustained; competition for scarce resources must be normal; inequality between groups must be reduced and persons supported to work towards common goals. In our context, the first and perhaps the most important criterion is absent.

Either because our current crop of politicians does not comprehend that in Guyana a nation cannot be built without substantial national consensus or, more likely, because self-interest has been given pride of place, they continue to take actions that could only further rupture our social space. For example, consider the results and aftermath of the 2011 general elections.

If it is near impossible for a self-perpetuating essentially ethnic regime to build a nation, how much more hopeless it must be for one founded on what the other significant groups believe to be a questionable electoral outcome permutated on race. In this sense, by allowing the formation of a minority government rooted in race, the election of 2011 and the PPP’s decision to go it alone has compounded the racial/ethnic problems in Guyana and left little space for the development of a national consciousness. As such, we remain a country – an occupied geographical space – waiting to become a nation!

henryjeffrey@yahoo.com