Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 18, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
We all know “The wheels of justice can grind slowly”. Such is the case in Guyana where changing government by election can take decades which is a huge chunk of a Guyanese life in as much as the average life span is only to age 63. No matter how you cut it, racially based voting breathes life into this peculiar situation and it is wrong. It also undermines every aspect of the country, plunging it into the doldrums.
Racial rifts run deep among Guyanese spurring Indo-Guyanese to be the main backers of the PPP/C and Afro-Guyanese to be the main backers of the PNC, which rebrands itself as APNU.
Almost five-decades of history has shown us that the fractured voice of Guyanese voters, seldom swings the pendulum of power for the reign of a new government with it being in a deep freeze since the last movement in over two decades by forces of Indo-Guyanese supporters for the PPP/C government.
Likewise, the PNC led government has also enjoyed power for almost three decades with the main support of Afro-Guyanese. A similar story can be decked out over mayoral powers for the city of Georgetown. These stories have painted a dysfunctional political landscape in the country and it is largely driven by voters.
Voters widely miscalculate the fruits of race based voting, thus granting politicians long stays in power for decades just because of their race not realizing the backlash. Indeed, giving politicians this kind of job security pushes the country into strong headwinds against any kind of development, by creating a sea of troubles including, skyrocketing corruption, breeding dictators and escalating poverty. Racially based voting cast a destructive and unpatriotic image of voters, as
Theodore Roosevelt once said that “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user”. Voter inertia has enabled politicians to plunge the country into a “paradise” of destruction, leaving it to wither on the vine. Voters need to reclaim their image while rebooting the country, by recalculating their motivation for casting ballots.
Politicians have benefitted by racially based voting to the point that they have fomented racial divide by racially baiting voters with an Indo-Guyanese and an Afro-Guyanese Presidential Candidate for the PPP/C and APNU political parties respectively.
Voters have loyally embraced this tactic not realizing that it is just a bait for votes with no incentives for anyone except for politicians. Racially based voting even gives politicians confidence to make calculations on political wins, so much so that the PPP/C government is openly remarking that despite the fact it is a failed government, it will be victorious in the upcoming Presidential election.
The wind has been in the PPP/C‘s sails for decades with the Indo-Guyanese racial demographics tilted in its favor and so the PPP/C is parasitically taking advantage of this, to the detriment of the country. A remedy for this kind of un-patriotism requires only decent human beings, to desist using the race of political candidates to attract voters.
Since birth, I have been weeping alongside my country from pains precipitated by racially based voting but I am still hoping that this dysfunction will recede into irrelevancy by pragmatic voters and by decent human beings, as well as by the forces of evolution favoring survival.
Guyana is a cosmopolitan nation, this means that its health, depends on voters speaking with a racially united voice, at the polls in effect realigning voters sentiments with a quote by John Quincy Adams who once said that” always vote for principle, though you may vote alone and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost”. Voters need to bring the pendulum out of the deep freeze by understanding this and let it swing to the forces of a racially united voice, as often as is needed, giving the country a chance to recuperate in good health.
Annie Baliram
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