Defenders of election rigging: A Marxist and Freudian analysis. Part 2
Kaieteur News – I ended part one yesterday by noting that the mulatto and middle class society in general did not anticipate PPP returning to power in 2020. Although they have some fatigue with the way the APNU government did + AFC performed between 2015 and 2020, these strata were generally comfortable with neo-liberal government directions.
They saw in Granger a middle-class personality that they would receive any day than Bharrat Jagdeo or Donald Ramotar or Irfaan Ali. As the election campaign began in December, they could not have predicted a victory for the PPP. Their disquiet about the PPP first began with the games changer – the no confidence vote (NCV). In my piece yesterday, I mentioned that throughout the year of machinations to avoid the impact of the NCV, not even one article about PNC and AFC illegals was published in the weekly column “In the Diaspora”.
By Thursday afternoon on March 4 when the world knew the PPP had won, the mulatto groups had resigned for two reasons. Firstly, the rigging was too obvious, barefoot, humorous and sick. If it was subtle and sophisticated, they may have had an excuse to accept the “APNU + AFC victory.”
In fact, three women from this stratum published an interview with the Chronicle supporting Claudette Singh. But as Singh’s deportation became more and more unpleasant, their open support for rigging disappeared. This stratum chose to remain silent.
A second reason for the silence was the fear of losing credibility. Highly acclaimed international figures from around the world condemned the rigging. The list of prominent personalities included past and present CARICOM prime ministers and the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies. Due to space constraints, we have to move on to the other section mentioned in part one that had their Freudian reasons for staying silent.
This topic is one in question and a third column will not do justice to the analysis. So the remaining section of this article will only be brief notes.
Why did people like Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, Dr. Clive Thomas, Dr. Nigel Westmass, Dr. Arif Bulkan, Moses Bhagwan, Eusi Kwayana and others not to deny one of the world’s most tragic attempt to ravage democracy in Guyana in a lifetime. where was that nearly impossible in these parts of the world?
All the names pictured above saw the 2020 election contest as a war involving a party they feared coming back to power. It doesn’t mean they like the APNU + AFC. They did not want to return the PPP. This is where Freud comes in. In their mind there is a deep lack of approval of the PPP. People like Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana have never forgiven the PPP for diminishing their role in Guyanese politics. Those guys will never forgive Cheddi Jagan. For them, Jagan is the PPP and the PPP is Jagan.
They both fell into the WPA in the 70s because they saw WPA replace the PPP and thus revenge on Jagan. He will need at least two columns to analyze Rupert Roopnaraine. Perhaps it was an atavistic return to the era of the middle-class, mild-mannered Indians of the 40s who preferred to socialize with European society in British Guiana.
People like Roopnaraine, the Ramsahoyes, the Luckhoos, Peter D’Aguiar’s Indian colleagues, chose to associate themselves with Creole / Portuguese / colonial society. They evolved from Guyanese Creole culture and were socialized into Creole culture, West India. These Indians are not forgetful people; are actually pleasant human beings. It’s just at the cultural level, they prefer European values. Do you know that one of the most prominent, living Guyanese personalities dropped his Indian last name and adopted a western, Christian last name? Ironically, a white American, Janet Jagan, embraced Indian culture. The attitude of these people to rigging 2020 is the same as their counterparts in the mulatto ethnic community.
Finally, the WPA people like Clive Thomas, Joycelyn Dow, Bonita Bone, Dr. Nigel Westmass, Dr. David Hinds and other WPA remains. The problems between these people and the PPP run far and deep. The choice for them is APNU + AFC not the PPP. Their historical approach to contemporary dialect in Guyana is that the WPA should have been the deserving heir to the vacuum that existed after the overthrow of Forbes Burnham’s totalitarian oppression. They felt very hurt and have become unfaithful to what the PPP did to them after 1992. That was no reason to want Guyana to return to dictatorship through a rigid election in 2020. It was you have to put the country first. They didn’t.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)