Dear Editor,
My family is in self-quarantine in Georgetown for the last three weeks. I am seizing the opportunity to catch up with my 15-year-old daughter whose schooling continues online. My daughter is in Grade 10 and one of her subjects is Government.
Initially, when we started out our isolation it was elections related so I explained to her the impasse with the results or non-results of the election (with the aid of some Stabroek News and other news outlet articles). I asked her to sum up from a governance perspective what she thought of the perspectives regarding the issues surrounding the elections by the various commentators. I received these questions from her, by Skype from her bedroom, to in her words help come to a conclusion. I wanted to share them.
1. If several (more than one) ethnic and social groups voted for one political party how is that not plurality? The majority of African Americans vote for the Democrats. Why is that a bad thing?
2. How does the tyranny of the majority apply if there is no majority, as in over 50 percent, in Guyana?
3. What other countries have power-sharing governments and how is it achieved?
4. Why is Constitutional Reform seen as the only way to address perceived or real marginalization of sections of the population?
5. Has the country tried options such as quota policies not based on race but need?
6. What happens if it is in the constitution and the means for achieving it are not there?
7. If there are swing voters in Guyana (as indicated by the previous and these elections) why are there persons who think democracy is not working?
8. Wouldn’t the presence of swing voters indicate there are persons in Guyana who are voting based on their needs being addressed or not addressed? Doesn’t this indicate that persons are moving away from ethnic voting?
9. When can I have the 50 dollars you promised me for doing this, there is a video game online that I really want?
Whilst, I can address number 9 by myself, I need some assistance with numbers 1-8.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
