#BTEditorial – Guyana’s problem goes deeper than elections

Our sister CARICOM nation, Guyana, appears to have entered into a condition of a new normal, in which the results of an election to the presidency cannot yet be declared a full week after being held.

This is a blot on the history of democratic governance, not only to the South American republic but on the wider Caribbean community.

It threatens to tarnish a hard-won and much-vaunted reputation of a region that is dedicated to the peaceful conduct of public affairs, the rule and respect for human rights after centuries of violent colonisation and brutal human subjugation.

But today nowhere are these virtues under greater threat than in the Republic of Guyana.

The trajectory since independence in 1966 of Barbados and Guyana could not be more stark. Indeed, both have seen their fair share of crises.

But this tiny and resource-poor Island should be no match for one of the most highly endowed nations on Earth, the size of England, Scotland and Wales put together.

But we submit that the present and future of Guyana will continue to be stunted unless its people and government address the elephant in the room – the Indo-African racial divide that has seen Guyana teeter on the brink of very uncivil Civil War.

Going back to the mid-twentieth century shenanigans of British and American realpolitik in which a wedge was driven permanently into the relationship of comrades Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham, who, until 1953 were viewed as a biracial symbol of progressive, social, political, and economic change in Guyana.

Space does not permit a more thorough exposition of Guyana’s political history. Since then, suffice it to say that differences have been enlarged, opportunists emerged and moments for reconciliation and rehabilitation were bypassed.

There now exists a curious, racial division of labour in which the civil service and law enforcement spheres are dominated by Afro Guyanese, while Indo-Guyanese concentrate on entrepreneurial activity from trading to farming.

Be that as it may, the ready shibboleths on race and class in Guyana will serve no useful purpose in helping a nation heal itself, particularly as it is about to embark on a new and an uncertain economic future – the discovery and imminent exploitation of vast oil resources.

The Guyanese question is a problem in two parts. First, the acceptance of a verifiable count of ballots cast in the election of Monday, March, 2. The second – a formal process of national reconciliation, peace-building and confidence-boosting in which Guyanese of all stripes begin the work to reject artificial divisions that retard the development of one of the most vitally important members of our CARICOM.

We cannot deny that the prospect of racial reconciliation, possibly along the lines of commission of the South African example, would be an important step in national soul-searching.