When the President invited Mr. Carter to come to Guyana, it is possible he didn't bargain for the format that Mr. Carter would have arranged? As it turns out, Mr. Carter will be meeting a wide cross-section of the Guyanese society. The PPP will be swamped by its opponents during the duration of Carter's visit. It is reasonable to conclude that there is going to be a plethora of criticism against the way power is exercised in this country.
Don't ever think you can understand people with power. Sigmund Freud, the greatest expert on human nature, said he never understood women. Women are far easily understood than people with power. Will we ever know what makes people with power behave the way they do? Possessors of power are people who live on an elevated plain. They are seldom in touch with the ground and their exalted position lures them into believing that their cognizance of reality is better than ours. Out of this comes a feeling of superior knowledge. Out of this further comes the thought that they can manipulate the world.
President Jagdeo no doubt had in mind an arrangement whereby he would ask Carter to be the guest of his government and he will unfold for Carter his government's plans and dreams of a future Guyana, and ask Carter to let his Georgetown-based office remain and observe the 2006 poll. But Jimmy Carter towers above everyone in the PPP in terms of intellectual capacity for analysis. Carter works with a team of fine academics. Carter knows that the dreams of the PPP for Guyana exist alongside the dreams of so many others in this land, but only the PPP is allowed to have their dreams
So Carter said yes. He sent a preparatory team. That team met with many other dreamers who are not allowed to dream. The expelled democrat from the PPP, Khemraj Ramjattan met the advanced team which visited Guyana two weeks ago. Discussions went on with members of the business community and civil society. Carter was briefed by his exploratory team. And what did he do as soon as he touched down? It was no surprise if you know the man. It was no surprise at least to me because I referred on many occasions to a viewpoint that two top Carter Centre officials told Dr. Daniel Kumar and I - that they are not optimistic about a peaceful, democratic future for Guyana. They saw a large part of the blame going to the type of governance the PPP practices.
So what did he do? He issued a brief statement that launched a thousands hopes. He pointed to the need for the social structure in Guyana to be more encompassing of the needs of the totality of the community. Obviously, the social structure has a political directorate that is in charge of the shape and direction of it. In analytical terms, Carter has called for inclusiveness in the way Guyana is administered. I suspect this is the theme he is going to hear from groups as diverse as ACDA, ROAR, the private sector among others as he meets with them throughout the day.
I said above that, the PPP is going to be outrun by the other interests that Carter will dialogue with. About ten other groups he will talk to, and out of that number, you can hardly find one that is committed to the PPP's style of rulership. Even though they are of different ideological complexions, a common thread will knit all of them - the ruling party is too narrow-based and is running the country in a framework that excludes other organisations and the country is exclusively in the hands of PPP personnel with not even a modicum of consideration for other forces who can help bring development and credibility to Guyana.
Briefly, let's anticipate what they will tell Carter. The weakest link is ACDA. An extremist organisation, they are going to give Carter a copy of Keane Gibson's booklet. Carter will be told that there is a racist policy to discriminate against African Guyanese who are dying each day and who are now living in total poverty in Guyana. The way out is to bring the PNC into power and share government with the PPP. Carter is not going to be impressed with these arid simplifications.
Ironically, it will be an Indian leader who is going to intellectualize on a position that ACDA should when it meets Carter. Ravi Dev is going to articulate for Carter the Africa/Indian security dilemma. But unlike ACDA, he is not going to descend to the level of crude banalities and talk about who killed whom. He will suggest to Carter that this twin insecurity has to be the focus if Guyana is to be peaceful.
The PNC/R is perhaps going to come good because Carter offers the best and last possibility of a PNC role in the future administration of Guyana. A number of arguments will surface in the PNC's submission but three will take up the space on the top of the agenda - (1) the empowerment of parliament, (2) the inclusion into government of a number of stake-holders apart from the two major parties, (3) the resumption of the dialogue must include other stake-holders than those represented in parliament.
These are three powerful thesis and their validities are compelling and inviting. Guyana's parliament is not functioning in a democratic way and has continued from the days when Guyana was a parliamentary farce. On the question of the dialogue, it makes little sense to accept the PNC and the PPP talking about the life of Guyana when Guyana is more than just about the PNC and the PPP. On the seminal role of expanded government, to argue against this is like pushing an open door.
Then there is the Guyana Human Rights Association headed by Mr. Mike Mc Cormack. Mr. Mc Cormack must be respected for his great efforts in helping to restore democracy here. He is a skilled presenter and two fundamental points will emerge from him. One is that Parliament has been reduced to the rubberstamp it was before 1992 and constitutional changes must be a priority to resuscitate parliament as the supreme organ of the land. The other is the GHRA's persistent criticism of the abuse of the legal institutions by the government of the day. Finally, Carter will dialogue with the Bar Association whose head is Mr. Ramjattan. I hope there is space and time for this fine politician to tell Mr. Carter about the erring ways of the PPP which Mr. Carter helped to bring to power 12 years ago and whose erring ways are the reason he is now here.