Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 21, 2019 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
Except for the elections of 1953 which marked the arrival of universal adult suffrage in Guyana, all subsequent elections were driven by ethnic-based hysteria. However, in 2015, a multi-ethnic coalition government emerged, thereby signalling a move towards equilibrium – a quantum and irreversible change in the political market. Read on to see how you can influence the rate and direction of this change.
First, whence the ethnic-based hysteria, a good deal of strife had developed between Afro and Indo Guyanese on the plantation resulting in ethnicity, a survival instinct for the group, becoming a destabilising force for the nation.
This happened because the constitution stipulated that the party with the most votes must occupy the seat of government. The resulting competition, therefore, resulted in the rise of a de facto feudal regime which, whilst ostensibly pursuing ambitious development plans, also spent a great deal of resources standing on the castle battlement looking out for vandals and villains from the rival ethnic group waiting to take over.
At election time, barons in the castle merely muster the voters. After the elections, they abuse the power of the state in order to fortify their fiefdoms with castles, carriages, land grabbing, poorly regulated land uses, sub-standard public services and bloody murders. Thus, every election season became one of mass hysteria as the voter, fearing a worse alternative, repeated his action under the watchful eyes of the castle and its thugs.
Thus, the vote remained solidly ethnic and hostile to independent ideas as to how the franchise could be used to help stop the abuses described above and, consequently, free the voter from a life of perpetual serfdom.
Observing early signs of this weakness on the part of the voter, the Colonial Office, in 1953, pulled the constitution, closed the gates of the political market, and laid down a policy of “marking time” to enable the voter to reflect on his actions. But he was too indoctrinated and terrified by the forces in the manor house. So, for 62 years he continued, in his learned state of dependency, to do their bidding.
In 2015, however, a few independent thinkers prevailed and, as a result, a non-ethnic dominated coalition of parties was elected. Therefore, what is the likelihood of the economy following an expansive path along which increased public benefits, including ethnic security, will be equitably assured?
Well, the answer rests largely on the coalition’s multi-pronged programme aimed at freeing the voter from the manor house and putting him in an environment in which he can cultivate and exercise his individual right of freedom of choice.
His new level of understanding will be achieved under a local government system in which the electorate votes for enterprising local individuals capable of serving as intermediaries between the people at the local level and the governmental machine at the center. The local representative will, in time, establish a track record on the basis of which he can seek election to the central level, a mode of choosing that emphasises development based on a popular and transparent agenda rather than on a script aimed at fixing the manor for another round of tense ethnic defence.
The proposed local government structure is complemented by a regional land use plan designed to further engage local leadership in the multi-faceted task of redistributing the population from the coast, its historical base, to the resource-rich hinterland, a long mooted scheme that has not, however, materialised because of the absence of an efficient transportation network. This goal will, however, be made less challenging under a plan for the even distribution of towns/marketing centers across the country.
Such a settlement pattern will reduce transportation costs by making everyday goods and services available within shorter commuting radiuses. In the long run, barriers like long distance, traffic jams and inadequate parking, far too common today, will be problems of the past.
And who but the young, the educated and the restless should, armed with this policy weapon, want to lead the assault on the ethnic manor. They would have read history and known that it took centuries for the castle walls to tumble and give way to the orderly and expansive forces of trade guilds, trade courts, and universities.
They would also have read how the 100 year wars between the fiefdoms of Europe restricted development, but how ideas advanced in Westphalia, venue of the world’s first diplomatic effort led to the opening up of the market for world trade, one in which Demerara sugar is still a popular brand.
Convinced by such evidence that ideas are the seeds of development, they would want to immediately go out and, using the policy as a ploughshare, cultivate every surrounding square mile of young and fertile minds. And they would hardly want to wait to begin campaigning electronically /peacefully against the morass of stereotypes, entitlement, chronic dependency, and favouritism that accumulated under the wall of racism during our sojourn in the sugar vineyard for close to three hundred years.
They will then, by turning their backs on it, tackle the wall itself, that visible symbol of a moribund feudalism that has fenced in the country’s development for too long. In addition, they want it completely demolished because they want to be able to walk to the coming oil and gas labour market with only their qualifications and experience, without having to stop at the manor house for a recommendation.
The goal next polling day is to elect the architect of social cohesion; a government in which the constitutionally mandated “the largest number of votes” reflects the ethnic make-up of the country; and to end ethnic tension by rejecting the single party model with its ageless agenda, as naked as the king in his new suit, for exploiting the emotions of its followers whilst alienating the rest of the population, especially that restless youth.
So, embrace a higher level of understanding; boycott or expel racism; vote for science’s quantum shift, and put your country on a higher and more sustainable development path.
Fitzroy Collins
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