TODAY’S article is part 13 in the series on the history of the political deportment of the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC). In two previous sections, I referred to the political suicide of the MCC. The reason for the use of the word “suicide” is because, throughout its history, the MCC went into partnerships that became victimhood.
First, it was the National Democratic Party in the 1950s; the PNC in the fifties too; the United Force in the 1960s; the WPA in the 1970s; the Hoyte presidency in the 1980s. After these marriages, it was the AFC and the PNC under Granger. Since March 2020 MCC has been dancing with political suicide. As a social class, the MCC will never die and will continue to be present in the sociology of Guyana for a long time to come. I will explain later.

Since March 2020, when the MCC realised not only that the PPP returned to power, but the shape of Guyana’s politics will be done by the PPP for a long time to come, because the PPP will not lose power in a hurry, the MCC has refused to form any type of political alliance, thus courting political suicide. I think it was this thought of PPP permanency that sent the MCC into a tailspin after the declaration of the PPP victory in July 2020.

This was a “dread” moment, as they say in common lingo, for the MCC. From the time the MCC emerged as a class force in Guyana, out of the ex-house slaves after emancipation, and with the arrival of the Portuguese into British-Guiana, the MCC’s dedicated journey was for Guyana to join other Caribbean countries as a Western, Creole society.
Cheddi Jagan’s organising of Indian people outside the sugar estates was a development that the MCC was not prepared to tolerate. The MCC thought that with its success in getting the colonial office to deny Indian people the franchise, that would have been the end of the road for Indian political awakening, but Jagan put an end to that. The MCC finally put an end to Jagan when the British and American governments pursued violent upheavals in Guyana, leading to the ouster of Jagan.

Despite Burnham’s defection from the MCC’s agenda, the MCC was never unhappy with permanent power through rigged elections. They saw rigged election as the MCC’s staying power. This explains why Mr. Ramkarran wrote recently that the MCC (he didn’t use the term) were all adamant about free and fair elections, but when Burnham died and Hoyte rigged the 1985 election, they became silent.

My contention is the WPA kept the PPP out of the loop because the intention in the 1970s was to overthrow Burnham and install an MCC regime with Walter Rodney and the WPA thus keeping Cheddi Jagan out of power. This explains the revelation by Ralph Ramkaran that, despite years of cooperation, the WPA felt that the time had arrived to remove Burnham in 1979. When the PPP leaders asked for information on the strategy, the WPA denied giving the PPP the details.

I am contending that, looking back at the WPA ramparts in the 1970s, it was not a genuine revolutionary moment but another attempt at the hegemony of colour and class by the MCC. Revisionist history will not be kind to Rodney because his politics were driven more by colour and class than by Jaganite revolutionary socialism. I am researching a column that will answer my own question as to how Rodney would have reacted to the rigging of the March 2020 poll. I will not be kind to him because my research will not allow me to be such.
So why is the MCC not in an alliance, whether thin or tiny, with Aubrey Norton? I answered this question when Norton became the leader of the PNC. Please Google my column of Friday, December 24, 2021, headlined, “PNC election results 2021, part 2: Norton faces colour and class.”

I quote from that column: “If Corbin was despised in 2002, Aubrey Norton will be treated with the same disdain the MMC has forever shown the Indians. The MMC will not associate with Norton. They believe he is not MMC material, just as Corbin wasn’t. They will not give the PNC any funds. The businesses that bankrolled Hoyte and Granger will chase away Norton.”
I wrote that in December 2021. Today it is public knowledge that the PNC has money shortage. The MCC isn’t giving and will not give Norton any funds. The MCC is prepared to go it alone as it has been doing since March 2020, Why? I will answer that in part 14.