Dear Editor
The debate to decide Charandas Persaud as hero or villain will depend upon events that are yet to unfold in the immediate future. It has shifted to the consequences of his vote, that is, the fall of the first genuine transitional government, and the failure of the government to use the democratic opening to move Guyana forward.
The Charandass vote may have stemmed from the best of intentions or the worst of human impulse, but neither factors are important in the bigger picture. What is fundamental is how to move forward the democratic process in Guyana.
Guyana has suffered two long periods of unbroken one-party rule, that of the PNC’s twenty-eight years from 1964-1992, and the PPP’s rule from 1992-2015. Despite shortened terms of the PPP on two occasions, there was continuity in office. The coming to power of the APNU+AFC party as an organic entity, not as a coalition, was the first break in the continuity of long periods of governance by a single party. At this stage, it is uncertain whether the pattern of long periods is about to be broken or maintained.
The APNU+AFC organic party was a dire necessity to avoid a repetition of 2011 in the 2015 elections. But to accomplish this goal, a dramatic step had to be taken, and this became known as “The Cummingsburg Accord.”
The Cummingsburg Accord was a remarkable agreement. It came to fruition as the 2015 elections brought forth a new government. The AFC had declared that it would not “tie bundle” with the APNU in the run up to the elections. It made a remarkable turnaround with the Cummingsburg Accord, which guaranteed it forty percent of the government and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Upon coming to power, the PNCR component of the APNU began to make a shift in logic. It first claimed that the PNCR was the major party and that the AFC had failed to deliver its fair share of the vote. This claim was staked on the Moses Nagamootoo side of the equation. Nagamootoo had been brought into the AFC as an outsider, and he was rewarded with the Prime Ministerial position. This was a compromise within the AFC, which felt that it could make a breach into the PPP/C stranglehold on the Indo-Guyanese community. The PNCR component felt that the results of the elections did not substantiate the claim that the AFC had attracted any significant number of Indo-Guyanese to vote for it.
The Burnhamists within the PNCR began to assert its influence in the new government. The Granger/military component also sought to counter this with moves to develop a power base of its own. These two factions of the PNCR began to reduce the power of AFC ministries in order to compensate for the “forty-percent” giveaway to the AFC. The rest of the APNU components, the WPA, and the single candidate parties of Sydney Allicock, Jaipaul Sharma, and Keith Scott, were all ignored. The APNU+AFC organism had imploded into an assemblage of parts.
A significant price had been paid by the WPA in the process leading up to the Cummingsburg Accord. It had come into serious disagreements with the Rodney family on the timing of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (WRCOI). Furthermore, there were serious internal splits within the party. But the bitter price that the WPA paid for its existence had forged unbreakable bonds that held it together. The blood of Walter Rodney was too valuable to lose sight of, and it coursed through the veins of the body politic of Guyana. It was assaulted by the major parties and many others for its alliance with the PNCR but has remained steadfast in its resolve to put Guyana first and foremost.
The WRCOI set the stage for the APNU+AFC government and the WPA relations. The shutting down of the WRCOI by the new government indicated that the PNCR was unified in its opposition to the WPA, and would not countenance any criticism of its founding leader. The findings of the WRCOI have been relegated to the dustbin of history by the APNU+AFC government.
The WPA has shown at the official level support for the government. At the unofficial level, members of the WPA have taken the government to task for any policy that they have deemed an attack on the working people. David Hinds has been outspoken, so much so, that he has been removed as a columnist for the Chronicle. Hinds started out in the early days of the government claiming that both the PNCR and the WPA were now on a common course. He went even further when he renounced his previous crusade for power-sharing, arguing that the PPP had done such misdeeds that it would have been immoral to share-power with them. His muted criticism of the government revealed the fragility of the PNCR and AFC parties, so much so, that his banning from the pages of the Chronicle which fell under the jurisdiction of AFC’s Nagamootoo was not objected to by the PNCR since it was fully aware that the President so demanded.
Tacuma Ogunseye, in the employ of the government, made the point that he would not criticize the government on certain issues since it would unintentionally lend support to the PPP. He did not shy away from criticizing the government on issues that he felt was a serious breach to WPA’s political interests. Given the current situation, his fears were well justified, and he comes out with some credit for his stated position.
Rupert Roopnaraine and Clive Thomas represented the public posture of the WPA. The handling of Roopnaraine by the government has bordered on the obscene. After being appointed as Minister of Education, he was removed and given another portfolio unceremoniously, supposedly based on matters of ill-health. His presence in the Cabinet has been a WPA rubber stamp for government policies, including the shutting down of the WRCOI. Dr. Thomas’ role has been rather more complex, since he has been working with assets recovery and has been subject to the full assault of the PPP, given its vulnerability in that area. He has been blamed for some of the harsh treatment meted out to sugar works but has defended himself as not being the person who was responsible for the policies that he was blamed for.
The Charandas vote came at a critical moment in the life of the government, insofar that the local government election indicated that the government had to get its act together. It came at the time when the transitional period was now over, and the government had to define itself and its accomplishment in preparation for the 2020 elections. It also came at a time when the WPA had to define itself in its role in the government. It was time for a cost/benefit analysis and a test of their true value to the APNU+AFC government.
The Charandas vote pre-empted the time frame of this exercise. In the current timeframe, it is unlikely that it will become an election issue. It also allowed for an aborted process in which no corrective actions could have been taken by the government had it erred and wanted to make amends. It also represents a loss of confidence in the ability of the other parties to have defended the democratic process in Guyana, belittling their role in bringing down the previous government.
On the other hand, the WPA has been given the opportunity to reconfigure itself in order to assert its identity in the current political debacle.
Lurking in the background is the battle for oil dollars and the crisis in Venezuela.
Yours faithfully,
Rohit Kanhai
