‘It takes both sides’ -former US envoy on bridging racial divide

While expecting that the major parties will be pulling out all the stops at the 2020 elections, former United States Ambassador Perry Holloway says that defusing the racial conflict that has been fueled by politics will require work by both sides of the divide.

“It is going to be a very hotly contested elections, it is no secret, and Guyanese know that. Both parties know that whoever wins this will be in power with a lot more wealth and if you do good things with it, it probably allows you to stay in power for a long time. I think both sides are going to be pulling out all stops—I am only talking about legal stops—and they will do everything they can to win,” Holloway told reporters during an exit interview last week.

“I am from South Carolina, a place that still has racism to this day. When I was younger, boy it was much more prominent and quite frankly, outside of politics, I don’t notice the same racial conflict [here in Guyana]. I am not saying it doesn’t exist, but I rarely see Indos and Afros not playing together, working together, and doing things together all of the time. It seems like politics is a place where it gets more charged… I don’t have a magic bullet or potion for that. It takes both sides. You are never going to solve it if only one side wants to solve it. So, somehow, both sides have to figure out a way to come together and work this out,” he added.

Holloway, who left Guyana after completing a three-year tour of duty, noted that Guyana’s electoral system “is a winner-take-all” one for the executive of the country and that can only be changed through constitutional reform. He added that the people have to decide if they want to stick with it or pressure their policymakers to change it. “I am not saying that I am an advocate for constitutional reform, but if you want to have greater power sharing… then there has to be some sort of reforms out there able to promote more power sharing,” he said.

“As I said before, it’s a winner-takes-all system, so, therefore, there is little for the opposition to do except oppose. You have an opposition now that was in power and you have in power now a former opposition, but still some of the activities are quite the same; just different people in different parties… Maybe that’s the way the people like it and that’s fine, but if not, the only way you’re going to get rid of that is changing it,” he added.

‘No oxygen’

And while he believes now is a good time to start the reform process before going into the 2020 elections, he does not believe that politicians here are eager for it. “I don’t think there is a lot of oxygen out there for constitution reform, that’s my personal opinion; not to say there aren’t persons out there who don’t care about it, there are many people who care about it. But to do it, you will have to get both sides together… After the next election, there’s no election for five more years, so maybe that will be a good opportunity for constitutional reform, but I mean that’s for the government to decide,” he added.

Holloway reminded that the last elections were only won by an approximate 5,000 votes and it is for this reason that politicians here should remember that their fates can easily change.

“Work more together because you never know who will be in power in 2020. It could be one side or another. The last election was only won by 5,000 votes, give or take. Work more together… This is a country where 50 per cent of the population is under the age of 26. They are the future leaders, the future everything of Guyana and if you are not providing them the education, the training they need, then it’s not going to work out so well,” Holloway added.