Tribalism in Guyana

HAVING SOME knowledge of the recent history of Guyana and its tribal divisions, I took with more than a grain of salt Freddie Kissoon’s dogmatic views on Indo- Guyanese as quoted by Raffique Shah in his column in the Express of 16/5/17.

My information is that Kissoon was an academic of minor standing who was dismissed from his position by the Indo-Guyanese-dominated PPP/Civic government for reasons not known. Smarting from this rejection it is hardly likely he would maintain an objective perspective on Indo-Guyanese in general as would the Kaiteur News whose editors had their confrontations with the PPP/Civic Government.

The unhappy experience of Guyana as an ethnically plural society has much to teach us. Both Indo- Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese supported the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) up to 1953 as both Dr Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham held leadership positions in it.

When, in 1953, the British Government suspended the constitution of British Guiana and removed the PPP Government from office, Mr Burnham subsequently broke from the PPP and formed his own party, the People’s National Congress (PNC), which drew its support largely from Afro-Guyanese.

The PPP was left basically with Indo-Guyanese support.

This was the genesis of Afro and Indo-Guyanese racial division with its political overtones and appeals to racial sentiment for political mobilisation.

Election results in 1957, 1961 and 1964 would confirm the racial cleavages. However, it should be noted that, although in the late fifties and early sixties, the Indo- Guyanese population was well in excess of 50 per cent of the total, the Indo-dominated PPP was able to command only 47.6 per cent of the total votes cast in 1957, 42.6 per cent in 1961 and 45.8 per cent in 1964.

These statistics indicate that a not insignificant percentage of Indo-Guyanese voted for non-Indo- Guyanese-based parties and therefore could not be regarded as uncompromisingly tribal in their voting patterns as Kissoon insinuates.

After Dr Jagan and his PPP won the 1961 election, there was a concerted effort to undermine his government with the objective of crippling its ability to govern. Dr Jagan was seen as having Marxist leanings and too cordial ties with the Soviet Union which caused alarm bells to ring in Washington.

In 1962, the CIA intervened in the internal affairs of then British Guiana and collaborated with Burnham’s Afro-dominated PNC as well as the Afro-dominated Trade Union Congress to instigate street demonstrations, strikes and riotous disturbances of the peace.

Inevitably, the conflict devolved into a racial conflagration between Indo and Afro-Guyanese. The period 1962-1964 was a most traumatic time for the country. There was wanton looting, arson, maimings and killings.

Ann Marie Bissessar and John Gaffar La Guerre in their book, Race and Politics in Two Plural Societies — Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, noted: “By the time some semblance of order was restored in late July 1963, the death toll stood at 166 with over 800 people wounded. About 1400 buildings, in addition to cane fields, were destroyed by fire.” (p 86) While members of both major ethnic groups engaged in the violence, the Indo-Guyanese endured substantially more with greater loss of lives and more vicious attacks on their persons and properties. They fled the country in their tens of thousands. This experience of rabid violence seems to have deeply affected the psyche of Indo-Guyanese and it is understandable that their animosity towards Afro-Guyanese would become more entrenched and visceral.

However, it should be noted that many Indo-Guyanese blamed Dr Jagan for facilitating the conflict by pursuing his inflexible leftwing ideological agenda and for his government’s inability to protect them.

Since they were acutely critical of their own party and its leader, I n d o - Guyanese tribalism could not have been absolutely unequivocal as c l a ime d by Freddie Kissoon.