A contextual, strategic appeal to President Ali
Kaieteur News – In the context of what emerged with the unsuccessful attempts to rig the March 2020 general election, the ruling PPP is going to face relentless impossibility by the PNC and their intellectual deputies. n emotionally and racially driven. I do not believe that there will be a reduction period; not even before 2025, when the next vote is expected.
Two reasons explain this – race and permanent loss of power. First, the deputies saw the 2020 battle as a zero-sum game where India’s PPP should never rule again. Their decision then is to keep telling Black people that an Indian group, the PPP, didn’t win the election but the APNU + AFC did. David Hinds, Vincent Alexander, ACDA, WPA remnants and others like them will play that song non-stop. The song must be played because the shame will be great if it is stopped. After so much energy to keep that constitution alive, how can you then tell Black people, that you are receiving the 2020 election results?
Second, the PNC faces the prospect of permanent loss of power. They have no strategy and no strategy on winning future elections. But strategy or no strategy, the PNC cannot acquire enough votes in the future to win. Most human beings believe that opposition is needed in a democracy but the PNC (not APNU + AFC) is going to keep getting weaker and weaker. Against this reality, neither the PNC nor their deputies will accept any government direction or policy and will associate that refusal with vicious political hatred.
How does the ruling party strategize in light of this reality? There are three routes. Compromise with the PNC, which will incorporate the PNC into preaching to their supporters that the PPP is asking for peace because they know they have stolen the election.
The second path is to face the PNC. This is fraught with danger. If an organization has nothing to lose, then fighting to destabilize the country is the sole option of its leaders and they will use it.
The third reference is to reach out to stakeholders, other communities (eg women and youth groups), credible sections of civil society, responsible trade unions, the capitalist environment, the media, etc., and discuss the shape of governance with them. Under this third direction Guyana’s relationship with its global friends – the West, CARICOM, India, etc. – needs to be strengthened.
Within this framework, therefore, careful thought must be given to the shape of the forthcoming judicial commission of inquiry to rig the March 2020 election. I appeal to President Ali, don’t strategize wrong. Do not appoint local Indians, Africans, and Portuguese to cover the commission.
Afro-Guyanese will be ridiculed by the PNC, AFC and their surrogates as the puppets of the Indian government. Indians will be classified as closet PPP aficionados who are the personal friends of PPP leaders. A Guyanese from Portugal to head the commission will be called a local White who does not like Afro-Guyanese.
There will be PPP leaders who will say that the government should not let the PNC dictate the shape of the commission because the PNC is in a truant mood. They will argue that the government must do what it has to do. That’s not strategically good. You do not play into enemy hands if you have room to move. With the election investigation, the government is doing that.
There were two commissions staffed by non-Guyanese – the Walter Rodney Inquiry and the shooting of three protesters at the electricity protest in Linden in 2012. The PNC accused the chairman of the Rodney Commission of being sympathetic to Rodney. Think about what the PNC and their surrogates will do to local Guyanese who sit on the commission.
My recommendation is that outsiders “only” should include a 10 person commission. The unsuccessful rigging of the election was a global disgrace. The commissioners will see the evidence of that, with hundreds of video clips to strengthen it. The more commissioners you have, the more credible their findings in the international community.
Cost will be a factor but if the government can afford it, then the policy should be a seven or eight or 10 person commission. Try to get Commonwealth jurors, especially from Jamaica. Ireland should be a good place to look. That is a country whose image is well-loved around the world. Former American legislators should be looked at, especially the outstanding former members of the Black caucus. Extracts from India should not be obtained under any circumstances. You will give your enemy bullets to defeat you.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)