Power-sharing (executive): why it’s not good for Guyana

In the fiery storm that is the British Parliament, the respected Member of Parliament George Galloway said, “If there were a democracy in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah would be the president, because he would get the most votes. But of course he cannot be the president, because you have to be a Christian to be the president, and you have to be a Sunni to be the prime minister, and you have to be a Shi'ite to be the speaker”.

Above MP Galloway went as far as to denounce power-sharing as undemocratic. Like the respected MP, those of us who understand the political world understand the difference between power-sharing and democracy. Power-sharing is the road towards democracy, if a country is torn by civil war for example the horn of Africa and Northern Ireland. It can also be vital towards a transition to democracy like the case of South Africa. Power-sharing expert Arend Lijphart acknowledges this.

We are often fooled by beautiful words like power-sharing, which should be more truly termed power-stealing because it is stealing from the people, stealing the right of the people to choose a government based on a political platform, it is also stealing accountability in the executive branch. The political oppositions have to a lot to gain from power-stealing, but ultimately their supporters have everything to loose.

Guyana is a full fledge democracy and have nothing to gain from power-sharing, to us it would be a step backwards. We have no militia to appease; we have no group of elite that seek to destabilize democracy, we do have a group that seek destabilize our democracy but they are far from the elite, however I should point out they also choose a patriotic misguided name by calling themselves “Freedom fighters”. We have free and fair elections where a majority of the voting population gets to choose the party they feel have the best platform to lead Guyana over the next five years.

An election in Guyana is a bid by the political parties to serve the people of Guyana. Every party put forward their proposal and the people choose the best proposal, that winning party then get to choose those who feel can carry out the platform chosen by the people.

In layman’s language, imagine you want to build a house and you choose the best contracting firm to do the job (Democracy), but you are being forced to also hire part of the high priced competitors and the other firm that have a track record for shabby workmanship (Power-stealing).

Many supporters of power-stealing do so along racial and ethnic terms and points towards marginalization while they advocate disenfranchisement. I wonder which member of the PNC would like to explain to their supporters that in their power-sharing plan they would endorse the no-basis case for race and in turn guarantee Guyana to be ruled by the ethnic majority. Now political scientists might argue that this is the reality in Guyana, but that is just thinking short term, what would happen when the next Walter Rodney comes around? Oh that’s right the PNC have no care for the Walter Rodney types!!!

Asif Mohamed

Brain Drain Guyana

There is very little we can do about brain drain. Someone once told me we cannot see the evolution of the world because everything evolves so rapidly, it is like we are running the fastest we can just to keep up, globalization and national development is no exception to this rule.

Today about 80% of our educated migrate to other countries and this depends on a variety of factors.

Guyana stand out in South America as the only English speaking nation and this is one of the main reasons why we are being hemorrhaged by brain drain. Our top three brain drain destitutions are USA, Canada and UK respectively and this comes as no surprise because they are all English speaking countries. It is important to note that the brain drain percentage in Suriname is higher than Guyana and is the highest in the world. It is also important to note that a majority of Surinamese migrate to The Netherlands, due to language commonalities. Suriname population is significantly lower than Guyana’s; this is why their percentage rate is so high.

As much as Guyanese are seeking to travel to the United States, Americans are looking to hire Guyanese. I am still very proud of the New York Times article in 2002 which talks about Schenectady Mayor Jurczynski visiting Richmond Hill trying to recruit Guyanese to his town.

"They're a hard-working people (Guyanese)," Jurczynski said. "They do not believe in public assistance as a group, unless it's absolutely necessary. So right away I felt good about them. What mayor wouldn't?" (Pittsburgh Tribune).

Mayor Jurczynski have made his success with Guyanese a role model for cities facing decline in America. Robert L. Smith highlighted Jurczynski’s success on Cleveland.com as a solution to Cleveland declining development, Marisol Bello made the same claim and hope for Pittsburgh declining economy.

The lack of a language barrier makes it easy for us to be recognized but the Guyanese appetite for progress and our good work ethics make us stand out in the American workforce. As long as this demand for Guyanese workers continues many more will be leaving the motherland.

Our sense of community and family also contribute greatly to our success in foreign lands. Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Nickel and Dimed explores the world of single women taking on minimum wage jobs in America and come to the conclusion they cannot survive. Little did she realize that Guyanese and other immigrants women survive on less in America, because we have a strong sense of community and family. While Ehrenreich was spending more than half of her salary on rent (in her book), Guyanese immigrants are doubling up, tripling up, quadrupling up… to save that necessary rent money; vital to survival and remittance. Our strong sense of community means you can find everything Guyanese on Liberty Avenue, Richmond Hill that you would find in Guyana.

There is very little positive we get from brain drain, sure we get remittance but that only encourage more migration. It is quite impossible for Guyana to compete with the big ABC (America, Britain and Canada), especially since the conditions are right for Guyanese to succeed in the developed world. Brain drain is solely the responsibility of any single country, crisis in single countries lead to refugee migration and not only brain drain.

There is no solution to Guyana’s brain drain but a reduction in crime would lessen the blow. With less crime Guyanese who choose patriotic over economics can return or stay home and live in relative peace, which can eventually turn the tide towards economical development and separate common migration from massive brain drain.

Thank you,

Asif Mohamed

Freddie Kissoon and his misguided thoeries

Freddie Kissoon wrote a very disturbing piece for Kaieteur news (July, 09, 2007) that is riddled with inaccuracies and hypothetical nonsense. Freddie Kissoon rightly wrote, “People's psychology is a complex thing to understand” and then he went on to rationalize that the president might draw his confidence from the fact that many of the journalists are young and employed by the government. Now Mr. Kissoon as a political scientist lets examine your rational, have you ever seen the President not confident? Is he any less confident when in the mix of older journalists? Is the President any less secure when he is among a majority of private journalists? Is there any correlation between the rhetoric of the President and your theory? If you were to do a little research you would see that your premise is wrong because the President’s rhetoric does not change from a local press conference to one held overseas. Yes I did the comparison you neglected in an attempt to project your misguided theory.

People’s psychology is a complex thing to understand. My guess is Mr. Kissoon had to sell our local journalists as inexperience and too scared to do their job so we can all hail the glory of the experienced and brave Freddie Kissoon, who is not afraid to take on the GOG yet, play the victim anytime he gains official attention.

I truly believe Mr. Kissoon when he wrote, “My task in life in this country is to seek to open the eyes of the people of Guyana that I hope to spend the rest of my life in.” Self praise? You decide.

Mr. Kissoon claimed that President Jagdeo never accepted any invitation to a debate among the presidential candidates. I don’t know how true that statement is, but I can tell you President Jagdeo had no need to accept invitations to debates because he was the one issuing debate challenges to Mr. Corbin and the PNC before the last election. Also Mr. Kissoon, the President did not stipulate the debates only deal with economics, he wanted social and economical issues to be addressed. Robert Persaud issued a statement saying, “The Office of the President has made it clear that the President of Guyana has no preconditions for the debate and is willing to publicly debate the Leader of the Opposition at any time, place and on any topic”. (Guyana Chronicle).

Mr. Kissoon also criticized the President for not engaging third parties in debates. It is quite mind-boggling why a political scientist would criticize the leading presidential candidate for not engaging third parties. Generally the two main parties engage in debates because they represent a vast majority of the people. If they don’t represent the vast majority they would not be the main parties.

I agree with Mr. Kissoon that GPL is responsible for a great part of technological progress in Guyana; however I must point out that it is hardly as simple as Mr. Kissoon stated also his references to technologies is outdated. There are many alternatives to GPL but there is no alternative to GTT when it comes to landline. Many private individuals and companies have alternatives to GPL power. The Guyanese government has issued commitment to the One Laptop project.

Mr. Kissoon wrote, “I close by asking President Jagdeo if it is bad reporting that has caused 80 percent of university trained Guyanese, as reported by the World Bank, to leave Guyana?” I can in no way answer for the President, but in my humble opinion it is unfair to make statements like that without any analysis of what is said, therefore no it is not bad reporting, but the way you did it is bad. Brain drain is not a problem unique to Guyana, all our Caribbean and South American sisters faces the same problem and the factors never depend upon any individual country. There is the country that suffers from brain drain and there is the country that succeeds off brain gain. There are also language barriers, ethnic security, historic alliances and experience to factor into the equation and this is only the beginning of the discussion. I am not running from the issue of brain drain in my next article I will address this topic.

It is time Freddie Kissoon to apologize to the Guyanese people for his blunders or else he would not be able to serve the people due to a lack in credibility.

Asif Mohamed