This is part 11 of my series on the Mulatto/Creole class in Guyana. In part 10, I did say I would conclude in part 11. But when I looked at the material I have in front of me, it looks like the series will be beyond a dozen columns. There will be part 12 for sure in which I will examine the social, sociological and political existence of this class in Guyana after the general elections of 2025.
In part 3, I wrote the following: “A strange almost inexplicable trait has emerged within the MCC since March 2020. The MCC at present looks like it has abandoned its strategic habit from the 1950s and has shown no interest in class and race alliance since the March 2020 election fiasco. In 2023, it appears that the MCC is committing class and race suicide. But more of that in another column.”

I will now return to the theme of class and race suicide. A clarification is in order. I meant political suicide. I will now explain. From the time of Emancipation, the descendants of the house slaves (who are the core of the MCC) suffered from the problem of numbers. They did not have a substantial percentage in the population to wrest state power for themselves. They had to form alliances. Four times they did this and lost out. One was the National Democratic Party of John Carter in the 1950s; the larger party, Burnham’s PNC, outmanoeuvred them.

The second was the formation of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) as a political party in 1976. So bold, reckless and un-strategic was the advice of the MCC to the WPA that the WPA was devastated by the regime of Forbes Burnham. The third occasion was the birth of the Alliance For Change. Unable to understand the dialectics of society, the inclusion of moneyed Indians formerly of the PPP and Ravi Dev ‘s party Rise, Organize and Rebuild (ROAR) resulted in the alienation of the MCC founders of the AFC.

The fourth occasion was the MCC’s victory over Robert Corbin in 2011. After winning the leadership of the PNC following Desmond Hoyte’s death, the MCC made it clear it will not embrace his leadership. Corbin refused to accept the demands of the MCC. They stripped him of funds, formed their own party, the AFC and Corbin became a figure of the past when he lost five seats in the 2005 general elections. In 2005, it was a straight fight between Corbin, a non-MMC politician and Raphael Trotman, a quintessential MCC personality.

Here now are some complexities in Guyanese historiography, and I am happy to add to the crystallization of my country’s history by the brief notes to follow below. Contrary to popular belief, it was not Corbin who threw up the name David Granger, to replace Corbin. It was Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine of the WPA.

It was not Corbin who suggested a rainbow coalition in which the PNC will submerge itself into this new formation, which became a Partnership for National Unity (APNU), it was Dr. Roopnaraine. Roopnaraine has not been given credit for his role in these two situations but revelations by Ravi Dev put Roopnaraine at the centre of this new direction in Guyanese politics. Dev wrote that during the talks on the rainbow coalition, Roopnaraine would be having his own dialogues with Corbin. Dev said that his (Dev’s) complaints to the WPA went unanswered.

The ascension to the hierarchy of the PNC by David Granger was a pleasing moment for the MCC. Granger was an integrated member of the Georgetown middle class and was a personal friend of Stabroek News founder, David DeCaires. He bought Granger’s monthly magazine, “Guyana Review,” after its finances collapsed. The magazine was not getting advertising money.

But the shape of the presidency after 2015 caused huge consternations to the MCC. Granger literally handed over the presidency to Joseph Harmon, with the Minister of Finance having enormous jurisdiction. To the surprise of the MCC, former soldiers became concentrated in the totality of state power.

The MCC did not know these former soldiers; they were not members of the Georgetown elites or the MCC itself. They were viewed with suspicion by the MCC because most of these ex-military men were dark-skinned and were close to the Burnham administration that the MCC disliked for the state’s role in Walter Rodney’s assassination. Contrary to what people think, Harmon was more instrumental in the ubiquity of soldier power after 2015 than Granger himself. Space has run out and we haven’t touched the theme of the political suicide of the MCC in 2023. It looks like we will have part 13. And that is an unlucky number.