Political commentators and organizations, who today are critical of APNU+AFC’s performance, were only three years ago rallying around them, enthusing about the change they would bring.
In his Sunday column (KN, 18/11/18 ), David Hinds reminisces, “For many of us, then, the coming to power of APNU+AFC was more than electoralism, more than the naked assumption of power—it was a triumph of the best of our instincts over the worst in us…I knew then what “August Morning” of 1838 looked like”.
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) did not share in this euphoria. We understood what many around us failed to understand, that is, the true nature and class character of the APNU+AFC Coalition. At the time, some accused us of being pessimistic. Our aim was not to dampen the spirits of the people; we certainly did not want to rain on anyone’s parade. However, OVP is not in the business of telling people what they want to hear to win popularity or votes. We are committed to speaking the truth, no matter how bitter it is. And even if we lose support – so be it. Truth is the foundation of a principled politics that fosters genuine respect for the people.
Based on our understanding of the class character of the coalition and the nature of party politics, as it exists in Guyana, OVP was able to accurately predict the outcome that we are faced with today.
We knew that APNU+AFC’s failure to deliver real change was inevitable, precisely because of their bourgeois conception of politics. It is a politics that is elitist, unethical and that sees the masses of our people as mere numbers to be counted for electoral outcomes. Once they win the elections, the people, for whom they have little respect or meaningful connection with, are discarded, and their focus is solely on maintaining power at any cost.
OVP never, at any time, equated the coalition with meaningful or radical change. If the day after the 2015 elections reminded us of what “August Morning of 1838 looked like”, it was in the sense that that morning back in 1838 was simply a starting point. That day in 1838 represented nothing more than the fact that chattel slavery was no longer legal. It was the beginning of a long and arduous struggle, which continues to this day. Likewise, the day after the 2015 general elections meant nothing more than the fact that we had rid ourselves of the racist, death squad PPP regime. This was simply a first step in a long struggle for the Guyanese people. In a full-page ad in the Kaieteur News, just a week before the 2015 elections, OVP warned, “After the elections, when the PPP is gone, the struggle continues. We cannot settle for exchange. We cannot accept a new set of politicians managing the same old fraudulent and failed system, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We must prepare ourselves for the next phase of the struggle.”
OVP understood clearly the true nature of the coalition and the neo-liberal ideology that binds them. We warned from the beginning that the election of this coalition would bring about an exchange rather than a change. For that reason we urged voters not to “put all their eggs in one basket”, but rather to give their vote at the regional level to OVP in Region 4. An OVP controlled Region 4 would have given us a power base from which to hold this bourgeois, self-serving electoral outfit to at least some of their promises.
Alas, the rest is history. With no one to keep them in check, they ran amok as we predicted and voila, we have the current situation on our hands.
Due to the dismal failure of the present government to improve the lives of the Guyanese people as they promised, the PPP made gains in the LGE and are gloating over their so-called victory. In his usual callous manner, Bharrat Jagdeo has tabled a motion of no confidence while President Granger is struggling with a life threatening illness. Our message to both APNU+AFC and the PPP is that they should stop taking the Guyanese people for fools.
While many are discussing what they see as a possible return of the PPP in 2020, they are once again failing to understand what is really happening. What the LGE 2018 showed us is not that Guyana will continue to oscillate between these two politically and morally bankrupt formations. Rather, the LGE demonstrated that real power resides with the people. History has shown us that when the people decide to act, they can act in ways that can humble all misleaders and governments. The day when the people of Guyana, especially the youths, rise up and let it be known that they have had enough of bourgeois politicians and their empty promises will surely, to quote President Granger, be the day that the Lord has made.
The struggle continues!
Gerald A. Perreira
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP)