Guyana attained republican status on February 23, 1970, some forty years ago. Prior to the attainment of republican status, the country attained independence status from Great Britain on May 26, 1966 which in effect meant that the country would be 44 years old come May 26 this year, in terms of political independence.
These are significant milestones in the life of this country. More importantly, it provided us as a nation with an opportunity to reflect on the path we have traversed over these years as well as the pains and tribulations we experienced prior to our becoming an independent country.
To say that we have made significant progress since the attainment of political independence is an understatement. The mere fact that we are a free country is in itself enough reason for us to be proud. Whatever else can be said of our colonial past, it effectively made us a subject population to an imperial power, in our case Great Britain, with whom we shared a colonial relationship encompassing some 150 years. Those were not easy years as the country was virtually drained of its resources, in particular its agricultural and mineral resources. Guyanese did not have any say in the determination of the colony’s political or economic life since all major decisions were made by the Colonial Office.
Today all of that has changed. We now have our own system of government based on multi-party democracy, our own National Anthem and of course our own National Flag in the form of the Golden Arrowhead which replaced the Union Jack. In other words, we have our own symbols of nationhood and with it our own sense of national identity.
It is true that our system of governance is still evolving, but it has certainly come a long way since the early days of colonial rule when the vast majority of Guyanese had no voice in the determination of national programmes and policies. Because of the limited franchise, only those with access to money and income were allowed to vote. It was not until the emergence of mass based political parties, more particularly the People’s Progressive Party, that the colonial power structures were shaken to a point where some form of representative government began to take shape.
The introduction of Universal Adult Suffrage in the elections of 1953 resulted in the election to office of the popular and mass based People’s Progressive Party, but the victory was short lived after the PPP, under the charismatic Cheddi Jagan, was forcibly removed from office after a mere 133 days on the spurious grounds that it was about to set up a ‘communist’ regime in what was then perceived to be a “US sphere of interest”. Even though the PPP was democratically elected with a commanding majority of the seats in the National Assembly, it was denied the opportunity to continue in office and was replaced by an interim government which was made up of some of the very people who contested and lost the elections.
Sadly, some of the problems we experienced were of our own making, in particular the destruction of the democratic fabric of the Guyanese society by the PNC which replaced the PPP in the elections of 1964 which was fought under a new electoral formula of Proportional Representation as opposed to the constituency model which, it was felt, gave the PPP an advantage beyond its popular strength. The PPP, for example, had won a parliamentary advantage of 57% of the votes with roughly 46% of the actual votes cast. The introduction of Proportional Representation in which two or more parties could collate and form the government should none of the contesting parties failed to garner a majority was therefore seen as a viable attempt to remove the PPP from government and install a government that was perceived to be more responsive to western interests.
The post-independence period leading up to the elections of 1992 were characterized by much turbulence and political instability due mainly to the refusal of the PNC regime to play by the rules of democracy and rule of law. It was not until the assumption to office of the PPP/C in the elections of 1992 that the country began a new chapter in its political and constitutional life which, among other things, saw a renewal of democratic norms and the upholding of the rule of law.
As mentioned before, democracy in Guyana is still evolving, but it has come a far way since the pre- and immediate post-independence years. The challenges are still formidable, especially in the context of our plurality and our past history of divide and rule tactics employed by our colonial masters to keep us divided as a nation. But we have grown over the years and have become much more mature as a people. We have become much more tolerant and accommodating to diversity.
As we celebrate our Republican status, let us reflect on the difficult road we traversed over the years and pledge to do everything possible to create a society in which there is peace, progress and prosperity.