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An Anti-PNC Handbook: Review of Prem Misir's book

Posted February 24th. 2003 - By David Hinds

The Political Mass Media Racial Complex

Prem Misir's latest book is a compilation of essays-- some published in the local media--on a wide range of issues such as race and ethnicity, media and politics, economics and ideology. The title "The Political-Mass Media-Racial Complex in Guyana" is somewhat misleading for the collective focus of the essays has little to do with a dispassionate analysis of the elements mentioned. Yet this book is a valuable addition to the literature being spawned by Guyana's post-authoritarian political landscape.

One is tempted at first glance to dismiss the book as mere propaganda. But that would be unkind to Dr. Misir whose academic and intellectual worth are well established. Dr. Misir scrutinizes anti-PPP actions, not within the context of PPP actions, but against what he sees as a democratic order. Thus he singles out the PNC for special attention. The book is a thinly veiled anti-PNC handbook that is adorned here and there with a few academic pieces. For example, 16 of the 21 essays in Part 1 attack or critique the PNC. Only one essay-- "Jagdeo's 100 days in Office"-- deals directly with the PPP. The others merely list projects undertaken by the PPP with no attempt at analysis.

The same situation occurs in Part II, which addresses the media. Four of the six essays critique the PPP detractors; one justifies the government's monopoly of the state media (the role of the state media worldwide is to report and be the mouthpiece for nation building projects for their governments"); and the other one discusses copyright laws. Part III, which is the most interesting of the three parts does attempt some analysis. It deals with race and ethnicity-- issues that Dr. Misir obviously knows something about. But in keeping with the tone of the book, it parrots the PPP's line that racism and racial insecurity are not as widespread as they are made out to be. One essay--"Cross Ethnic Voting has Occurred"-- seeks to explain the PPP's electoral victories.

This book suffers from two main flaws. First, it assumes that post-1992 Guyana is a democracy and so sees every challenge to the prevailing order as undemocratic. Dr. Misir lets the cat out of the bag in the Preface:

Since 1992, the year in which democracy returned to Guyana after being on the absentee list for 28 years, some sections of the society have shown considerable reluctance to accept defeat. This disinclination to concede election loss graciously is all the more amazing, as the three national election results since 1992 were validated as free, fair and transparent by reputable international observers (P. 14).

He then identifies a group in society who are "part of a community of irrationality; a group of persons with similar social origins and social network. Today they are institutionalized in an anti-democracy political/mass media/racial complex (p.1X).

It is to this cabal of unreason that Dr. Misir's essays are directed. The PPP and its government are presented as victims, yet this victim is not given due scrutiny. Therein lies the second flow of the book. One cannot analyze conflict without scrutinizing all sides. I know of Dr. Misir's academic integrity, so I will not charge him with intellectual dishonesty, but this book suffers from an imbalance that affects the general analysis.

However, I recommend this book to those who wish to learn something about Guyana's politics since 1997. It is well written and easy to read. Dr. Misir is not a PPP hawk by any stretch of the imagination. He struggles to find a balance between his two sides-the academic and the party propagandist. There is such a balance, but Dr Misir does not quite achieve it in this work. Nevertheless his book should not be seen as Freedom House's handiwork. But the PPP's leadership would surely not mind it.

Caribbean Diaspora University Press: New York. ISBN 1-928790-03-8 219 pages.