Dear Editor,
A former Senior Minister of the PNC Mr Malcolm Parris has made a stirring call for inclusive governance. Mr Parris comes from a family of intellectuals. They have many friends from other ethnic groups and have a good grasp of the social and political current that prevails in the country. We may not necessarily agree with some of his views or position, but we must not readily reject these either without studying their significance. Let’s place these under the microscope and analyze accordingly.
We believe that it’s our fundamental responsibility to work collectively to minimize or eliminate the deep-seated ethnic insecurity that has continued to plague the country’s real potential. How we approach this sensitive issue may not necessarily be uniform. Our first approach will be to set up a Commission of National Reconciliation and Healing, patterned along the South African model. Let’s engage in working out from our system the deep-seated hostility that we may harbour for other ethnic groups. We need to come to terms with this reality. The next step is to consider to what extent and the methodology to be used for the possible implementation of inclusive governance after the official declaration of election results.
We cannot help but comment that the PNCR had a great opportunity in 2015 to begin this process of inclusive governance but it dropped the ball. We believe that the reason may be that they thought that they would win the 2020 elections with the help of AFC and others. Now that they find that their expectation may have eluded them, they have belatedly turned to inclusive governance. Well, we have been told that there is “a no right time or a wrong time” for a philosophy, a doctrine or a principle to be debated and possibly implemented.
Given this position, we reiterate what many writers have been saying: “first, let’s have the votes recounted and the 2020 election results declared.” We also need to emphasize that the Guyanese people exercised their franchise for a party of their preference and for no other arrangement.
Notwithstanding, the PPP/C leadership has stated publicly that they are not averse to inclusive governance but “let’s first resolve the election impasse.” The leadership further indicated that the PPP/C’s manifesto does embrace the idea of inclusive governance. The PPP/C has further stated publicly that they intend to implement their manifesto agenda items, including inclusive governance, during the next 5 years, if elected. We have no doubt that the PPP/C will honour its manifesto promises.
We also agree that there is deep distrust between the major ethnic groups (Africans and Indians) and that some form of inclusive governance could mitigate mistrust and allow for enhanced ethnic relations. It must be noted that trust like love, has to be built over a period of time; it would not happen suddenly.
Also, we do not want to minimize the deep insecurity that exists within other ethnic groups, such as the Amerindians. As everyone knows, the Amerindians are the most marginalized group in Guyana. Taking the poverty rate as a crude measure of marginalization, their rate is over 75% compared with 30% for Africans and Indians. The Amerindians’ plight seems to be lost in most of our national conversation of marginalization and ethnic insecurity. And the small political parties should have an important say in any aspect of inclusive governance. They deserve to be there.
It would have been helpful to know what sectors of the economy Mr Parris has in mind that would qualify for consideration in any form of inclusive governance. It may be recalled that when Dr Cheddi Jagan and Mr Forbes Burnham discussed the idea of a National Patriotic Front government that a sore sticking point was the allocation of certain Ministries like Public Security and Finance.
Let’s have an open mind in this conversation for the sake of the future progress and stability of our country which we all love so dearly. However this conversation should in no way divert attention from the impending national recount of votes from all 10 regions.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Tara Singh
