Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 31, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
India is a useful example as to how lop-sided coalitions can defeat incumbent parties. It is also a good example as to how parties that brought significant development to a country can be voted out of power. It is not certain where the parties that got together to form A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) got their inspiration. But it might well have been India.
It may have escaped notice, but India was just after the turn of the century run by a coalition of parties, of which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the most dominant. That was a lop-sided coalition. These types of coalitions, in which there is one dominant party, have worked in India.
India, after the end of the Cold War, proceeded cautiously to liberalize its economy. It was extremely tight-fisted when it came to the opening of its domestic economy to western companies. Even after the BJP- dominated coalition came to power and hastened the pace of liberalization, there was still some amount of protectionism employed by the Indian government.
The BJP promoted India internationally with its famous slogan, “India Shining”. But it was that same slogan “India Shining” that cost the BJP, and its coalition partners, political power a few years later. While India was liberalizing and boosting its image worldwide, its leaders were deluding themselves into believing that because the country’s economy was doing well, the people were happy.
“India Shining” was turned around against the BJP. The opposition was able to show that while India may have been shining internationally, locally the living conditions of the ordinary Indian in India was anything but glittering.
The BJP lost power. It was forced to reinvent itself by choosing as its leader someone who came from the grassroots and who had experienced poverty and therefore understood firsthand, the problems of the multitude of downtrodden Indians. This was how the BJP rebranded itself.
The PPPC may have to follow the example of the BJP and reinvent itself by appointing a leader from amongst the poor. The PPP has to find its own Narendra Modi.
It may also have to reinvent itself ideologically. The party and its leaders have long ingratiated themselves into the bourgeoisie class. It ruled in the interests of an oligarchy class which has now abandoned the party. That class has fickle loyalties. It was not surprising that following the loss of political power by the PPP, the oligarchic class which profited the most from the PPP’s rule in power have decided to jump ship.
The PPP lost power because it lost touch with reality on the ground. It knew that it had brought development to Guyana. There is no disputing the fact that Guyana is now far better than it ever was economically because of the PPP. The new government does not have an economic crisis to deal with. The Treasury is flush with money. Foreign Direct Investment is high. Oil has been discovered. The financial sector is doing fine. The tax base has expanded and revenues are high. Guyana’s economy is strong.
Yet, its people are weak. This was the mistake the PPP made, just like the BJP made in India when it lost the elections. They looked at the international image of Guyana. They saw Guyana as a shining example of what a liberalized economy can achieve. The PPP failed to recognize that the people were hurting on the ground, that the cost of living was high, that the rich were getting richer and the poor were not doing as well.
The PPP had also been in power for a long time. The party had become stale. Its leaders were disliked because of their attitude and the way they treated others. People wanted a change. They were prepared to risk change just to see what some other party would do.
But the opposition also capitalized on the government’s obsession with economic transformation. They pointed to the problems within the society, just as how the opponents of the BJP had pointed to the internal problems of India. The message of the opposition won through, narrowly as it did.
The PPP was not humiliated in the elections. It lost a close race. It should reflect on its mistakes and make the necessary changes. It, however, is not likely to. It does not have the open mindedness of the BJP.
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