THOSE who pretend that we live in a perfect political world are fooling themselves and fooling Guyana. Our politics are never perfect. None of our political parties and governments have been perfect. Our political journey has been a rocky one. The accidents and intentional acts of oppression in our history are many. But at the end of it all we survived. We survived because we always found a way to fight back and overcome.

The fall of the PPP in 2015 was an instance of overcoming. That party, aided by the built-in racial preferences, believed it owned Guyana. While in office, it hid behind democratic elections while it plundered Guyana’s resources. It did so shamelessly. There was no regard for life and liberty. The PPP was fulfilling Dr. Jagan’s dream of being in office and in power. They corrupted Guyana from head to toe.

The Coalition’s 2015 victory then was the beginning of a rescue act. Half the population gave their votes to the Coalition to rescue all of Guyana from the PPP. So, the fact that the Coalition is in power is itself a very positive development. The Coalition is a new experiment in inclusive democracy. It is a movement away from the discredited one-party winner-takes-all system. That is in itself a qualitative leap in a positive direction.
Five years after that heroic rescue act, we ask ourselves: Is Guyana at a better place than it was in May 2015? When all things are considered, the answer must be a resounding yes. The Coalition is not perfect; its tenure has not been perfect. But its presence in office has pulled Guyana away from the turbulent PPP rule. The country is less unfree and less corrupt. The face of the country is less anguished than it was in 2015.

The undermining of the government began in earnest the very day it was sworn in. They wanted to kill the dream before it started to materialize. Some withheld their capital and then claimed the new government was anti-business. This is an old trick. It was used against Michael Manley in Jamaica in the1970s. It has been used against every progressive looking administration in post-colonial Caribbean history. They cried wolf when there was no wolf in sight. They incited sugar workers into believing that their world would end because of the closure of a couple estates. What they didn’t tell the workers was that right-sizing sugar meant an end to PPP abuse of the industry for political gains. It has to be acknowledged that the PPP were the biggest losers in the reorganization of the industry. Not the workers, but the PPP big boys.

They cried race when there was no racism. The charges of ethnic cleansing did not gain traction. The lies were obvious. There were no racial upheavals. Indian Guyanese were not sent away to concentration camps as the PPP predicted. They were no police shootings during protests against the government. Nagamootoo and Ramjataan were not stoned to death by Indian Guyanese.

They cultivated Charrandass to bring down the government. They then terrorized the courts to validate their political greed. They tried every trick in the book to cut the government’s tenure. They wanted to push the country to all out racial war, but they were rejected by the people. They tried to corrupt GECOM but in the end the failed.
In little over three months, the country goes to the polls again. The PPP wants to rig the elections via a rigged Voters List. But that is not going to fly. They are encouraging the formation of new parties to eat away at the Coalition’s vote. They tried to goad the PNC into kicking out the AFC, but that too failed. The PPP wants power so badly that it is prepared to invent trouble to pave their way back to office.

But they are not an option. They should not be given the reins of office again. The Coalition is the better option. They are not perfect, but they are more humane. They are not perfect, but they are more inclusive. They are not perfect, but they are more democratic. They are not perfect, but they are more visionary. The rescue act that began in 2015 must continue.