Posted August 22nd. 2004 - Special Feature by David Hinds

Power Sharing is indispensable to African Guyanese security

No institution has done more to promote discussion of power sharing in Guyana than the Stabroek News. Yet its most recent editorial on the subject captioned "Is the idea of power-sharing utopian?" (22.7.04) is most alarming.

I interpret the editorial, which on the surface seems to question the viability of power sharing as a mechanism for helping to solve Guyana's ongoing problem, as an attempt to frustrate the movement towards closure of the country's pain. The editorial correctly raises theoretical and structural questions, most of which can only be properly answered by experience. While the experience of Fiji where power sharing has had a difficult time is helpful, that experience or others of a similar nature cannot be the reason for negation of power sharing in Guyana. It would make sense for us to learn from the mistakes in Fiji and other places where it is attempted rather that use them to dismiss the idea. Majoritarianism Democracy has stumbled in many homogenous societies, yet we do not use those experiences to negate majoritarianism in countries with similar characteristics.

But the main problem with Stabroek News and some critics of power sharing in Guyana is that they are more concerned with theory and structure and less concerned with the African Guyanese dilemma and its consequences for national cohesion and stability. How people can continue to beat up the only feasible proposal for short and medium term solution for national peace is beyond me? The problems they raise are legitimate and must be addressed, but what do you tell African Guyanese who know from experience that elections under the present system and dialogue between the parties have only increased their fears of being permanently banished from the power structure in society.

Power sharing in Guyana is not just about theory and structure; it's about confronting the racial distribution of power. Given the fact that African Guyanese frustration is at boiling point and that the African party has reluctantly agreed to try power sharing, Stabroek News' negative position only aids the power grabbers in the PPP and the African extremists who have given up on any negotiated settlement and are ready for armed revolt. I think we take the African Guyanese condition too lightly only to denounce them when their anger spills over into the streets. And I say this as a critic of reckless African behavior.

Stabroek News must know that the few Africans who are battling to frustrate the notion of African armed revolt do so in the interest of national oneness. So when you try to scuttle our most potent appeals in the form of the promise of a shared existence and shared governance of the century you run the risk of either forcing us out of the mix or into the ranks of the extremists. Stabroek News has to decide whether it wants to reduce African security and by extension the nation's security to nit picking over theory and structure or not.

In case I never said it before, I say it now. Power sharing in Guyana is indispensable to African Guyanese security. And there can be no Indian, Amerindian, Portuguese, Chinese and White security if African Guyanese security is denied. Hence Power Sharing is essential to national security.

David Hinds lectures in Caribbean and Africana Studies at Arizona State University in the USA. He is also a political and social commentator who has written extensively on Guyana and Caribbean politics. More of his writings can be found on his GuyanaCaribbeanPolitics.com website.