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By Raffique Shah
July 17, 2024
Last Friday night, I quickly switched gears and focused this column on the one politician to whom I owed at least an apology: Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali. If he actually reads this, he’ll be wondering why I’m apologizing: I haven’t written or said anything about this young man since he took office in November 2020, and for good reason.
You see, Guyana politics is very similar to our politics in Trinidad and Tobago in terms of race, because the British colonization of both countries left us with an unstable demographic – Africans and Indians – who came here as slaves and indentured laborers respectively. The British did this deliberately to pit Indians and Africans against each other in politics and economics, jobs, contracts, etc.
Since the transfer of political power to the natives in the 1950s, there has been a war between the Indians and the Afro-Guyanese that has been ten times more intense than anything we have experienced in Trinidad and Tobago. There have been riots, arson, murder and outright bullying.
Initially, the government was superficially united under the leadership of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham as his deputy. Their People’s Progressive Party (PPP) won enough seats and votes to run the country. Remember, this fierce struggle would take place at the height of the Cold War, between Russia and its global communist allies on one side and the United States, Europe and all its usual allies on the other.
Western countries fanned the flames of race – which was hardly an issue at the time – into an all-out war based on race, while Britain had the power to declare a national emergency, remove Jagan as chief minister, and jail him and his key supporters.
With the help of the CIA and the British authorities who owned the colonies, Burnham formed a rival party, the People’s National Congress (PNC). Since Burnham supported the latter, Jagan would be unable to govern for a long time, despite the clear majority of votes for his party, the People’s Party (PPP). They manipulated the votes excessively and changed the electoral system to proportional representation, which made it almost impossible for Burnham to stay in power and impossible for Jagan to govern.
I could go on and on about how the Americans joined forces with the British to ensure that Jagan (a well-known Marxist, as was Burnham) was disempowered by naked colonial power. Throughout his life, Jagan was shackled when he even briefly won power under an unfair system.
You see, young people like Irfaan – and I beg your Excellency to forgive my intimacy, but Jagan and I are close friends – must never forget their history, which is tainted to this day by racism. That is why I feared the worst for Guyana when elections were called in 2020 under the leadership of Bharrat Jagdeo and the current People’s National Congress-led government fought in the streets and courts to retain power.
So when the name of Irfaan Ali came up, I didn’t know what to think. In fact, I knew nothing about him, even though his CV said he was an intelligent young man with several tertiary qualifications who could speak with the authority of a leader. My heart was filled with fear for his future, and for the many Guyanese friends I had who were not affected by racial “fear”.
For example, I knew Walter Rodney, whom I considered a friend, and there were many other people of different races with whom I had good relationships. So while I feared for Irfan’s life because I saw Rodney killed by a bomb believed to have been planted by a Burnham agent, I also had good reason to fear for the lives of others.
Irfan’s name and personality also did not impress the Guyanese people or Guyanese friends like me in 2020. The successor party to the PNC kept the Alliance in court and kept them on high alert, ready to be struck down by a bullet. Moreover, the shadow of Jagdeo loomed over Irfan, worrying the newly elected president.
If he’s worried, then people like me are at least anxious.
I also think that in 2020 the new president will face a difficult task in undoing the racial stigma that plagues his party and the fires of ethnic origin that burn among die-hard Burnhamites in Buxton, Berbice and elsewhere.
President Ali has completely allayed such fears of our observers and appears to have strengthened racial solidarity between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago where it should not exist.
In fact, he has become a near-statesman, enjoying a high reputation in the Caribbean and beyond.
We will talk more about President Ali later.
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