The PPP and the Amerindian vote--Freddie Kissoon

JUNE 16, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

The possibility should be looked at of doing away with a Cabinet portfolio that caters to Amerindian affairs only. Could one seriously argue that you need a separate Ministry for a section of the country that is ten percent of the population? For example, youths constitute more than half the population. Why not a special Ministry for youths? Why can’t the other Ministries cater for the special needs, (if they are special needs) of the hinterland people. Why can’t the Ministries of Public Infrastructure, Social Cohesion, Education, Communities etc have projects that are designed to cater for the villages that are inhabited by the indigenous people? Even if one argues against the dissolution of the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs, there still remains the question of an inbuilt electoral advantage that any ruling party gets from having the advantage of the Amerindian Ministry. Since the PPP came to power, the Amerindians have solidly given their ballots to the PPP. In 2015, one expected serious dents by the opposition into the PPP’s Amerindian votes. During the campaign, the opposition had some high profile indigenous citizens on its side – Mrs. Sandra Granger; Medical Doctor, George Norton, Valerie Garrido-Lowe from the AFC, Jean La Rose among others. But the bulk of votes from that section of Guyana went to the PPP. The answer lies in the then Ministry of Amerindian Affairs. The PPP used that portfolio to deliver things to the indigenous people the past twenty three years. In every election that Ministry was a cover for the PPP’s campaign activities in the hinterland. It was logical for Amerindians to have given the PPP their votes because the PPP Ministers were the only politicians they saw often. Between periodic national elections, opposition parties between 1992 and 2015 did not pay the frequent visits to the hinterland like the PPP Ministers did. The reason is commonsensical. The PPP used government funds to visit the interior. The cost of such trips is prohibitive for APNU, AFC and other organizations. What happens then is that whereas the opposition guys go in every five years, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs is always there. The indigenous people the past twenty-three years have received what they have received – solar panels, generators, building materials, vehicles – from the PPP Ministers. It is quite understandable then for them to be persuaded to vote for the PPP. Herein lies the insurmountable problem for the PPP in the 2020 elections. There is every reason to believe that the PPP will automatically lose the ten percent vote of the Amerindian population because the PPP cannot bring them the goodies that they have brought to the hinterland folks the past twenty three years. If the logics of the Amerindian Affairs Ministry favoured the PPP in past national elections, then it has to work the same way for the APNU-AFC coalition in future polls. In the next five years the gifts will come from the hands of Mr. Sydney Allicock, Ms. Garrido-Lowe, President Granger and PM Nagamootoo. The goodies won’t be coming anymore from Pauline Sukhai, Gail Teixeira, Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar. The new government will not abolish the Ministry because it would be political suicide. And even if it wanted to, the Amerindians themselves would object to that. The future then of the PPP looks bleak given the changing landscape in the hinterland. With the automatic loss of that ten percent vote, the increase in Indian migration, the natural embrace of the Indian people by the coalition, and the commonsensical assignment of resources to the sugar and rice industries and agriculture in general, the PPP days look numbered. The PPP will not be placated once it has the type of leadership it currently has. Gail Teixeira, Clement Rohee, Roger Luncheon, Clinton Collymore, Bharrat Jagdeo, Donald Ramotar, Komal Chand and company aren’t going to hibernate. They will be in the PPP leadership, old age or no old age, in the coming years. What the coalition government has to do is to free up the enclaves from which the PPP draws its strength. For example, there has never been a free and fair election among farmers by the Rice Producers’ Association. GAWU bargains for a wide range of workers all over Guyana. GAWU has never had a free and fair election to its leadership. These are some of the undemocratic modules that the PPP have perpetuated since they were in opposition much less, when they were in government. In the interest of free choice, the coalition government has to give these categories of workers the right to freely choose their own leaders. A truculent PPP may well be facing its final moments