—Attorney Nigel Hughes

THERE is need for a change in Guyana which would set the country on the right developmental path but, first, the country’s two main political parties must admit and acknowledge that there is an ethnic-political problem.

This is the advice of prominent Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes, who made the remarks while a guest on Straight Up Live on Tuesday evening. The Attorney-at-Law said that Guyana’s political problems cannot be solved in the Courts, and if political parties continue to pretend that a larger problem does not exist, Guyana will never get past it.

“This problem that surfaces every time we have an election is a political problem and it’s a political problem that has its roots in ethnic politics. That problem on ethnic politics continues to dog us because neither of the two principle parties wants to admit that their support comes predominantly from an ethnic base. They don’t start off by admitting that and therefore, it means, as a country, we don’t begin to have the discussions which we have to have if we are to move forward,” he said.

Hughes also pointed out that what Guyana’s consecutive elections have disclosed is that one ethnic group had always had a numerical advantage over the other. This has been exploited by political parties over the years, hoping to secure the highest number of votes to win an election or to make in-roads, to reduce an opponent’s chances of winning based on those grounds.

“If you’re going to ask for a counting competition, where one group has more numbers than the other, then you’re not going to solve the problem,” Hughes said, adding: “I would like to invite the political leadership of the parties, and I mean the principle parties…to at least admit that their support comes primarily from ethnic [groups] and then move from that fact, going forward, and discuss how it is we’re going to confront that.”

When the political parties meet, he said that there should be discussions on how these parties will work to develop institutions within the country which will ensure the fair distribution of the country’s resources as well as fair access to redress.

The Attorney stated that there are “real fears” amongst Guyanese of the main ethnic divides that they will experience a poorer quality of life or be victimized based on which ethnic group heads the government.

Hughes said that the A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic have a responsibility not to trust each other but to come to common ground on fundamental principles that stand to benefit not just their support base, but all of Guyana.

He stated: “They don’t have to trust each other. What they have to do is they have to admit that the only way the country will actually move forward is if they identify a pathway, a methodology which they both agree to as to how to move forward….this suggestion that there must be trust between the parties, I don’t subscribe to that because there are many parts in this world where people never trust each other, but once they have to live in the same space, and they have to occupy the same landmass [they come to agreements]. Nobody is saying they have to love each other or trust each other, but at least you can agree to some fundamental principles that will begin to address the real fears in the society.”