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Under the PPP an elected dictatorship has taken shape in Guyana - Freddie Kissoon

Freddie Kissoon - Nemesis at the door
If any country should have become a model of democracy, it should have been Guyana. And I mean this within the general context of politics; not in the Caribbean only.
The authoritarian system we lived under from 1968 until Burnham’s death was unrelenting. Desmond Hoyte came along and he presided over the worst rigged elections in Guyanese history. I lived through the 1985 general poll and it ended up like a plaything in the hands of Mr. Hoyte. For three days no one knew what had happened to the ballot boxes and what had become of the results. Like a thief in the night, the figures were released and there was confirmation of what we all knew; the PNC had won another fraudulent poll.
Hoyte’s transformation is yet to be researched on, meaning did he democratize because of a psychological metamorphosis or was he bending to global forces. He opened up vast areas of Guyana’s political economy which included the phenomenal decision to allow a private newspaper to function. But that did not satisfy the PPP, WPA, DLM, the GHRA, GUARD and the rest of civil society.
The nation, the Caribbean, ABC countries and the rest of the world familiar with Guyana’s tragic past wanted clean elections. We got it. The Guyanese people rejoiced even those who felt Hoyte had brought back respectability to the body politic, the country’s human rights sheet and the economy. We were just too tired and mentally burdened to endure another dirty general election.
That was in 1992. We know the contours of governmental politics since then. Others may disagree but it is my contention that the return to Burnhamite dictatorship has brought us to where we are today. Let me make it plain to all those who read this page; what is included in these essays are my opinions based on consistent analyses of the yearly exercise of power and these viewpoints will not be shaped by sentiments or situational timing. That is not how I see my role as a Guyanese believer in human rights for all people. I am not in support of a violent insurgency movement in Guyana. I am not in support of the weapon of murder to press the government to make fundamental changes. But there is a “but.”
But I also believe that if a government behaves viciously, uncaringly, arrogantly and discriminatorily in its domination of its citizens even if it is legally elected, such inhumanity will produce terrible backlashes. For me politics does not follow laws but dictatorship systems have a way of producing logic and that logic is the emotional and irrational rejection of autocratic rulers by subjects who have had their backs to the wall for too long. It is like a principle in politics. But since there are no iron clad laws in human history, there will be exceptions.
Cuba is a departure from the norm. Such a horrible totalitarian system has lasted for almost fifty years without a rebellion against its leaders. Cuba is the exception. Guyana is not.
There are fundamental reasons why autocracy in Guyana under Burnham collapsed and oligarchy in Cuba endured. It is outside the scope of this short column to elaborate on the differences in the political sociology and history of the two countries. But Guyana does not have the social make-up that will allow for a permanent dictatorship in Guyana.
As a political analyst, I have always maintained the historical perspective in my writings and that is, that people should know the truths about their country’s history. It should never be hidden from them. It is for this reason, most, if not all democratic countries have a law that compels the government to release classified documents after thirty years or forty years or fifty years of being on the shelves.
The foolish propagandists in Freedom House are yet to acquire the commonsense to know that the world learned about the CIA conspiracies in the sixties in Guyana because the American Government showed the world these once classified papers. It is time Freedom House declassify its own ledgers so we could know where the money came from for the PPP to buy property on Regent Street and Industrial Site and how much money it got through Barclays Bank from the London Branch of the UK Communist Party sent from Moscow. It is time the PPP opens its own archives so historians can know why Cheddi Jagan agreed to contest the 1985 general elections under a merged formation between him and Burnham.
I have turned many persons off with revelations that have peeved their surviving relatives and families, the latest being Dr. Cedric Grant. I told one of his admirers that my obligation is to history. I agree I should not say sensitive things while the persons are still alive but the truths of history must be told.
What has this got to do with my point that dictatorship has a logic and that logic is found in the angry rejection of those who oppress their people? The point I want to make is that I believe if Burnham did not kill Walter Rodney, then either there would have been a guerrilla warfare mode or that there would have been a slow, violent, conspiratorial process to overthrow Burnham.
Many of the WPA leaders still perform respectful and respectable functions in the Guyanese society and will not want to talk on the role of violence in the WPA’s confrontation with Burnham. This writer was close to the inner core of WPA leadership to know that violence was an option that was never ruled out.
And indeed there were episodic moments of violent intentions. Of course in this day of visa cancellation, it is doubtful that a person will pen a comment for publication informing the Guyanese people that he/she was engaged in the politics of violence at one stage in their political career.
Burnham’s totalitarianism was culturally and politically demeaning. His style was too cruel and harsh. He dominated the country and ruled it without sensitivity and compassion. Such a deadly dance could not have lasted forever. One suspects that Rodney had penetrated the armed forces and a coup was also a strong possibility.
It is virtually impossible for a social structure like Guyana to have an enduring dictatorship without a backlash. Anyone who has studied the evolution of the political economy of this county and the particular juncture in history where the separation of class from what was crystallized would know that Guyana is not a society where, like Cuba, oligarchic rule can last a long time.
My own opinion that lies deep inside my mind is that under the PPP, particularly since Mr. Jagdeo came to power, an elected dictatorship has taken shape. It is in the throes of a crisis of its own making. Its nemesis is at the door.

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