This article has nothing to do with former US Vice-President Al Gore’s documentary on the dangers of global warming and environmental degradation which won him an Oscar Award. It has to do with some truths that are often ignored by some opposition politicians and “analysts” simply because they found them difficult to acknowledge and even more difficult to come to terms with because of highly entrenched biases and prejudices.
What are these truths that opposition elements found so difficult to accept? And why is it that they would rather bury their heads in the proverbial sand rather than coming to terms with such realities?
The first truth that must be acknowledged, if only for the historical records of this country, is that the PPP is the oldest and largest political force in Guyana which this year is celebrating its 60th anniversary as a political party. Not only is it the oldest and largest political party in the country but it is also the party that has been instrumental in the realization of most of the constitutional and political gains the country has made over the decades. These included the right to vote which was fought for and won by the PPP during the early 1950’s.
It was the granting of Universal Adult Suffrage in the elections of 1953 that broke the back of colonial domination of the political and legislative structures of the colony, thanks to persistent and robust representation made by the PPP and its forerunner, the Political Affairs Committee.
The PPP also led the way in the struggle for internal self-government, the ministerial system of government, political and economic independence for the colony and by no means least, the struggle for the restoration of democracy to the country after it was stolen from the Guyanese people by the PNC after being catapulted into political office by Anglo-American vested interests in the elections of 1964.
It was not until the elections of 1992 that democracy was finally restored, nearly three decades later.
It must be said for the records also that the PPP has never lost an election in any free and fair electoral contest since its formation some sixty years ago.
In the elections of 1964, the PPP won the plurality by securing the largest bloc of votes even though it did not get a majority of the votes to form the government.
Were the constitution not ‘fiddled’ in the words of former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, the PPP would have garnered enough parliamentary seats to form the government. However, in a studied and well calculated plot to unseat the PPP, the British Government under pressure from the United States, took the unprecedented step to introduce Proportional Representation in the then Colony of British Guiana.
The plan was premised on the assumption that the Party’s parliamentary strength was larger than its popular strength. The Party had won 57% of the parliamentary seats in the elections of 1961 with 46% of the popular votes under the constituency system of voting. An obvious solution to get the PPP out of office based on voting patterns of 1961 was to introduce Proportional Representation (PR) which would have required a majority of the votes to form the government.
As it turned out, the PPP in the 1964 elections obtained 47% of the votes cast thus laying the basis for a coalition government between the PNC and the right wing United Force (UF). The PPP was ‘cheated, not defeated’ due to a highly manipulated constitutional arrangement carefully hatched by the British Government in close collaboration with local reactionary groups to engineer the PPP out of office.
Interestingly, there is today renewed calls by some of those very elements who were instrumental in the introduction of Proportional Representation in the 1964 elections for a return to the Constituency Model. The fact that the PPP has been successful in significantly improving its popular and electoral support since the elections of the 1960’s has put these elements in a difficult if not embarrassing position since the PPP has today demonstrated a capacity to win democratic elections in whatever form or shape, be they on the basis of the constituency model, the PR model or a combination thereof.
Another inconvenient truth that political detractors find difficult to accept is the fact that the PPP is the only Party that has managed to win cross-over votes on a scale that no other party had been able to do. The last two elections had demonstrated that the PPP/C received the majority of Amerindian votes and an increasing number of Afro-Guyanese and Mixed voters. This was particularly noticeable in Region Ten, a former PNC stronghold, where the Party increased its electoral support from 6% in 1992 to 23% in the 2006 elections having won in the process parliamentary representation for the first time. In this regard, the PPP is today the most representative political party in the country in terms of multi-racial support.
Inconvenient as it may be for opposition elements to acknowledge, the PPP/C has transformed Guyana’s political landscape to one in which there is full parliamentary democracy and respect for rule of law. The international profile of the country has been elevated due to the proactive stance taken by President Jagdeo on a number of global issues including debt relief, a new and more equitable global financial architecture and by no means least the pioneering role played by Guyana in the articulation of a Low Carbon Development Strategy.
The country’s social and physical infrastructure has been significantly overhauled resulting in a better quality of life of the Guyanese people, a fact which cannot be ignored, inconvenient as it may be to some.
QUOTE:
Inconvenient as it may be for opposition elements to acknowledge, the PPP/C has transformed Guyana’s political landscape to one in which there is full parliamentary democracy and respect for rule of law. The international profile of the country has been elevated due to the proactive stance taken by President Jagdeo on a number of global issues including debt relief, a new and more equitable global financial architecture and by no means least the pioneering role played by Guyana in the articulation of a Low Carbon Development Strategy.
