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The late Dr. Cheddi Jagan is credited with being the first leftist-oriented Guyanese to have won a seat in the Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate in the elections of 1947, under limited adult suffrage. As such, he became the first genuine working class voice in the then powerful and exclusive business-dominated legislature after having won a seat in an East Coast Demerara constituency. In his victory speech, Dr. Jagan said that it was a victory not for himself, but for the working people, and dedicated his victory to the working people of the then British Guiana. “We the people have won,” he declared, as he vowed to dedicate his entire life to the uplift of the quality of life of the Guyanese people.
Those were the days, in the words of Dr. Jagan, when Parliament was little more than a debating club. Laws were made not in the hallowed chambers of the Legislative Assembly, but in the Georgetown Club, over whisky and hard drinks. Dr. Jagan added a new dimension to the politics of the day. He took the parliament to the people and began to expose both inside and outside parliament the intrigues and exploitative nature of the ruling class.
His mission of empowering the working class was given new impetus after the 1953 elections, the first under universal adult suffrage, which saw a wholly elected parliament dominated by the PPP. From a lone working class voice in the Parliament, the PPP dominated the parliamentary benches, albeit for a short period.
Of course that working class assertion of political power was not to the liking of both the colonial office and the planter/commercial class, which conspired with other reactionary groups and brought down the PPP government after a mere six months in office. That victory, however, set in motion a new political dynamic which led to the victory of the PPP once again to power in the elections of 1957, with an overall parliamentary majority.
Sadly, this struggle to make the parliament a true voice of the Guyanese electorate was eroded by the PNC regime when, for the first time in Guyana’s political history, national and regional elections were rigged by the PNC to perpetuate itself in power after being catapulted into political office through the machinations of Anglo-American vested interests in collaboration with local reactionary groups which included the pro-business United Force.
The assumption of the PNC/UF coalition to political office saw a systematic erosion of parliamentary democracy. Parliament, especially after the 1968 elections, which was blatantly rigged by the PNC, no longer became a deliberative and representative body where laws were made based on the expressed will of the electorate. Instead, the opposition parties were reduced to “toothless poodles”, in the sense that whatever inputs they made into the parliamentary debates were ignored and trampled upon by a stolen parliamentary majority. This situation characterized our parliament for over two decades until representative parliamentary democracy was finally restored in the elections of October 5, 1992.
Today, for the first time in our political history, we have both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker drawn from the opposition benches. Under the PNC administration, the Speaker enjoyed considerable powers which was used to the maximum. Several opposition members of Parliament were banned from speaking in Parliament, including Dr. Jagan himself after he refused to apologize to the Speaker for some alleged violation of parliamentary protocol.
There were several exchanges, some of which were quite dramatic. I recall one in particular, when a PPP Member of Parliament sprinkled wheaten flour in the House to highlight the inconvenience caused to the Guyanese people, much to the consternation of the Speaker. Those were the days when several food items were banned from entering the country which included wheaten flour, split peas, imported potatoes, sardines, cheese, to name but a few. Those not banned were in short supply, leading to frustratingly long lines which were dubbed “Guylines”. It was not uncommon to line up for hours in scorching sun at food outlets, such as Guyana Stores or at Knowledge Sharing Institute (KSI) outlets, only to be told to return the next day or days for those scarce items. The number of man days lost in those lines was pathetically high and paved the way for a thriving underground economy which, at one time, was considered larger than the formal economy.
Today, we have a Parliament that broadly reflects the voting preferences of the Guyanese electorate in free and fair elections. The fact that the opposition parties are now in control of the Parliament by virtue of their one-seat majority is testimony to how far we have evolved as a nation in terms of our embrace of parliamentary democracy. The fact that the opposition parties have come under attack from some unlikely quarters for not adequately representing their constituents should not be blamed on the ruling PPP/C administration. The emergence of a so-called “People’s Parliament” made up of an amorphous grouping of political dissidents is nothing short of a mockery of the parliamentary process and more of an of indictment of the opposition parties, which, for all practical purposes, have failed their constituencies in terms of responsible and mature leadership.
Those were the days, in the words of Dr. Jagan, when Parliament was little more than a debating club. Laws were made not in the hallowed chambers of the Legislative Assembly, but in the Georgetown Club, over whisky and hard drinks. Dr. Jagan added a new dimension to the politics of the day. He took the parliament to the people and began to expose both inside and outside parliament the intrigues and exploitative nature of the ruling class.
His mission of empowering the working class was given new impetus after the 1953 elections, the first under universal adult suffrage, which saw a wholly elected parliament dominated by the PPP. From a lone working class voice in the Parliament, the PPP dominated the parliamentary benches, albeit for a short period.
Of course that working class assertion of political power was not to the liking of both the colonial office and the planter/commercial class, which conspired with other reactionary groups and brought down the PPP government after a mere six months in office. That victory, however, set in motion a new political dynamic which led to the victory of the PPP once again to power in the elections of 1957, with an overall parliamentary majority.
Sadly, this struggle to make the parliament a true voice of the Guyanese electorate was eroded by the PNC regime when, for the first time in Guyana’s political history, national and regional elections were rigged by the PNC to perpetuate itself in power after being catapulted into political office through the machinations of Anglo-American vested interests in collaboration with local reactionary groups which included the pro-business United Force.
The assumption of the PNC/UF coalition to political office saw a systematic erosion of parliamentary democracy. Parliament, especially after the 1968 elections, which was blatantly rigged by the PNC, no longer became a deliberative and representative body where laws were made based on the expressed will of the electorate. Instead, the opposition parties were reduced to “toothless poodles”, in the sense that whatever inputs they made into the parliamentary debates were ignored and trampled upon by a stolen parliamentary majority. This situation characterized our parliament for over two decades until representative parliamentary democracy was finally restored in the elections of October 5, 1992.
Today, for the first time in our political history, we have both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker drawn from the opposition benches. Under the PNC administration, the Speaker enjoyed considerable powers which was used to the maximum. Several opposition members of Parliament were banned from speaking in Parliament, including Dr. Jagan himself after he refused to apologize to the Speaker for some alleged violation of parliamentary protocol.
There were several exchanges, some of which were quite dramatic. I recall one in particular, when a PPP Member of Parliament sprinkled wheaten flour in the House to highlight the inconvenience caused to the Guyanese people, much to the consternation of the Speaker. Those were the days when several food items were banned from entering the country which included wheaten flour, split peas, imported potatoes, sardines, cheese, to name but a few. Those not banned were in short supply, leading to frustratingly long lines which were dubbed “Guylines”. It was not uncommon to line up for hours in scorching sun at food outlets, such as Guyana Stores or at Knowledge Sharing Institute (KSI) outlets, only to be told to return the next day or days for those scarce items. The number of man days lost in those lines was pathetically high and paved the way for a thriving underground economy which, at one time, was considered larger than the formal economy.
Today, we have a Parliament that broadly reflects the voting preferences of the Guyanese electorate in free and fair elections. The fact that the opposition parties are now in control of the Parliament by virtue of their one-seat majority is testimony to how far we have evolved as a nation in terms of our embrace of parliamentary democracy. The fact that the opposition parties have come under attack from some unlikely quarters for not adequately representing their constituents should not be blamed on the ruling PPP/C administration. The emergence of a so-called “People’s Parliament” made up of an amorphous grouping of political dissidents is nothing short of a mockery of the parliamentary process and more of an of indictment of the opposition parties, which, for all practical purposes, have failed their constituencies in terms of responsible and mature leadership.
