IT is very fitting and appropriate that Henry Jeffrey should want to pontificate and comment on my most recent missive published in Kaieteur News.  Henry Jeffrey has had the dubious honour, or otherwise, of sitting in the high councils of both the PNC and PPP at different times in his life.  As old people say “if patwa come outta trench and tell yuh houri green yuh must believe um”.
The central theme of Jeffery’s response is that I claimed that the PPP is pro-Indian yet I support their government, hence, I am accepting the inequitable allocation of resources.  Henry Jeffery has emerged as one of those typical “armchair intellectual politicians” whose only contributions to and intervention into the political life of this country is chronicling volumes upon volumes of opinions com verbiage. 
They have no understanding of the extent of the people’s problems.  They have no real empathy with the people.  They have no real knowledge that the major race groups or all race groups in Guyana want to live together;  want to grow together and want to see Guyana become this beautiful paradise that they know it can and will become. (Perhaps Henry is less guilty in this regard, but he has certainly now gravitated to this political sub-class).
Jeffrey ignores what is the central theme of my presentation which is, and I quote: “Democracy is not merely one man one vote but it imposes on all citizens, rights and responsibilities to police the implementation of what can be called society’s democratic norms” (the political and social scientist Dr. Henry Jeffery can further expound on what are society’s democratic norms).
A second theme ignored by Jeffery is what I said about the West Minister style democracy: “Once you enter the race, it means you abide by the rules and hence the winner or loser must abide for the next five years with the spoils of winning or losing.  Losing means that you aggressively, relentlessly and consistently represent the interests of your constituency (those who voted for you) at the Court of Government, proposing real, simple, practical things that can be done at village and community levels to better and improve their lives bit by bit. Failure to do so means that your constituency may not develop even-handedly with the rest of the country and in a country like Guyana this forms the basis for complaints of racial and ethnic discrimination in the distribution and allocation of government controlled resources.  Losing however, does not mean that you must eschew supporting and helping the government in implementing policies and programmes that will help to expand the economic base of the country.  Losing does not mean that the loser suddenly becomes unpatriotic and consistently seeks only to oppose, expose and depose whatever the consequences for the country.
Winning means that the party that won has the constitutional and legal authority to govern for the ensuing five years – govern in the complete sense of the word exclusively and totally, without any reference or adherence to any notion of inclusivity or power sharing – whatever that means.”
During the 28 years when the PPP were in opposition, they effectively, relentlessly and on a daily basis accepted the responsibilities imposed upon them as so-called losers of many elections under the West Minister Style democracy and represented vigorously the interests of their constituents (those who voted for them).  In many cases Dr. Jagan intervened personally, directly with Mr. Burnham albeit informally, to look after the interests of his constituents.
So far, for the 18 years that the PNC led opposition in Guyana has consistently and verifiably lost elections, the constituents of particularly the PNC have become perhaps the most abandoned and neglected constituents anywhere in the Caribbean.  As a group, they lack leadership, they lack focus and direction and they look on in bewilderment as they see and experience their lives deteriorate, as they watch their so-called political leaders wage slash and burn guerilla-type warfare in their party, squabble and fight pitched battles among themselves over the spoils of leadership, and in the process literally destroy the party that provided them with leadership and hope in the past.
Confronted with this stark reality, shouldn’t the so-called constituents of the PNC and other opposition elements gravitate, run, stampede towards a political party and government that offers sound development programmes, job creating projects, a positive and clear focus for the future – irrespective of the past, irrespective of race and ethnicity – damning the old political norms and practices so well known and skillfully navigated by the likes of Henry Jeffery?  Should not the Guyana of the 21st century tell Henry Jeffery and the likes of him that enough is enough already, with their constant focus on negative, time worn politics. With a democracy in Guyana where the opposition is strong and where they express this strength at the court of government, the government will respect this opposition and work together with all comers to ensure the evenhanded development of Guyana.
I am on record in the Hansard of the National Assembly as having consistently, relentlessly and aggressively advocated and represented the interests of my constituents of Region #10, proposing many projects, to the extent of defying my party and standing alone in parliament when the rest of my party walked out during a crucial debate concerning Power Generation in Linden, and I can say that the government always respected my approach and understood my reasons and responded positively on many occasions.  I will talk about two such projects at another time – one in the forestry sector that is going great guns and exceeding all expectations today, and one that was going to see the establishment of an export processing zone in Linden, which never came to fruition – I will state why.
Henry, just for the record, when I said “28 years of pro-black PNC administration and eighteen years of pro-Indian PPP Administration, I did not mean to say that the PNC governed for twenty-eight years solely in favour of blacks at the exclusion of Indians or that the PPP governed for eighteen years solely in favour of Indians at the exclusion of blacks.  What I meant to say was over 95% of its votes, “when it was legally acquired” went to the PNC from black people and more than 95% of its votes that went to the PPP were from Indians.
Look Henry, people in Linden and Region #10 are hurting, people need help.  I am out there on a daily basis interacting with hundreds of Region #10 residents working with them, giving what little help my organisation can garner from different sources, and from many exemplary benevolent/charitable organisations, and many times from my own meagre and inadequate personal resources trying to improve their lives bit by bit, day by day.  To engage in an academic debate now as to who and what is responsible for this state of affairs in Linden and Region #10 cannot garner help for people now! Cannot lessen malnutrition among children in Linden now!  Cannot alleviate what we know to be serious suffering now!  We act to help now.  We can have the debate later.
On October 22, 2010 my organisation dealt with 150 such hapless Lindeners, tomorrow we will deal with another similar one hundred and fifty and you know what, Henry, a lot of this help that we garner also comes from the government. My organization is dying to welcome some similar such support from you and others.  When people like you and those of your ilk can leave your well-ensconced perches in your quasi-opulent citadels and come down in the trenches with me and help make a difference in poor people’s lives day by day, bit by bit then your sterile armchair proselytisations and pontifications can mean something.
I will support vigorously, aggressively and purposefully any group, political party or government that is seen and known by me to be working to expand Guyana’s economic base, provide jobs and improve the lives of Guyanese now! Irrespective of history, race or ethnicity.