THIS is the conclusion on the above topic which looked at the historic, symbiotic intertwining between the Mulatto/Creole Class (MCC) and the middle-class political parties they had birthed from early times to 2020 when the Alliance For Change (AFC) died.
To understand how and why the AFC came into being, class formations during the political economy of President Desmond Hoyte have to come into focus.
The Hoytean economy resurrected five classes that were sociologically active from 1980 onwards: 1- The Portuguese petite bourgeoisie (PPB). 2- The Indian petite bourgeoisie (IPB). 3- The rural peasantry. 4 – the MCC. 5- The lumpen proletariat. Under Hoyte, a brand-new social class came into being – the nouveau riche stratum.
Four classes were miniaturised under the economy of President Burnham. The lumpen proletariat was the exception. President Hoyte dissolved the Burnhamite economy and replaced it with the Hoytean economy. Hoyte replaced state capitalism with open, competitive capitalism with little space for state intervention.
This analysis concerns the rebirth of the MCC, so there is no further room to elaborate on other classes, suffice it to say that only one class under the Hoytean economy did not enjoy ebullience and that was the national proletariat, particularly a section named public-sector workers.
The Hoytean economy under draconian dictates from the IMF reduced the meaning of existence for Guyana’s proletariat.
The MCC was resuscitated by the new Hoytean era, but the MCC found out that the dialectics that shaped Guyana from colonial times had reshaped Guyana in the 21st century. The MCC had no challenger in the state realm from colonial times to 1973 and even after in 1973, Burnham did not seek to eliminate it.
Although it could coexist with the PPB, the IPB and the nouveau riche classes, the MCC had no reach into the state after Hoyte lost the elections. The Jaganite PPP formed the government.
The MCC had a historic resentment of the PPP, not out of competitive political instincts but out of anthropological and cultural instincts. The MCC never hated the Indian people. It just felt that they should stick to the enclaves of business and rural production.
What happened in 1993 onwards was that successive PPP governments – under Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar – never created any special niche in the state for the MCC’s presence. Compounding the problem for the MCC was that the PNC had become more of a Black working-class party under Robert Corbin with a strong presence of the lumpen proletariat.
From 1993 then, the MCC simply had to wait to make its move. It finally did in 2005 when MCC personalities founded the AFC. A golden opportunity arose with the voluntary retirement of Corbin. The new PNC leader was an essential part of the MCC – David Granger. Corbin became a servant of one of the top MCC personalities — Rupert Roopnaraine.
Roopnaraine was always close to Granger from school days. Roopnaraine gelled with the crème de la crème on the MCC and thus got new leadership and funds for the new entity titled APNU. It was Granger who suggested to Raphael Trotman that the PNC needed cultivated leadership and a coalition partner of middle-class personalities.
One had to be around the AFC to see its resuscitation. There was hardly any MCC personality in Guyana that was not part of the birth of the AFC. The MCC was in celebratory mood with the birth of the AFC.
One of the reasons for this rapture was because the MCC understood its penetrating power in Guyanese society and knew that in its life, it has seen ups and downs, but Guyana cannot keep the MCC down.
The coalition of APNU+AFC was an atavistic return to the 1950s with the PNC and the MCC political parties. The APNU+AFC read like a who is who in the Guyanese non-Indian middle class. It is strange how the genes play out. The descendants of the MCC of the 1950s and 1960s behaved in 2011 just like their grandparents and parents – you know who we are.
The MCC reduced the PPP to a minority government in 2011 and captured the state in 2015. In that same year, the Chronicle interviewed President Granger at his private home.
He told the reporter that his mornings begin by listening to Bach and Chopin. Vic Insannaly at the funeral service for Roopnaraine told the mourners that three days before he died, he visited Roopnaraine, and he was in bed listening to classical music.
Granger is gone from politics. Roopnaraine is dead. David DeCaires is dead. Miles Fitzpatrick is dead. Nigel Hughes has retired from politics. Trotman is hardly seen these days. Red Thread has lost its colour and has become jaded. So, who will fan the political flames of the MCC? I think I know who that is.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
