POLITICS-GUYANA: Government at Odds with Core Constituency

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, Jun 11 2001 (IPS) - President Bharrat Jagdeo is no stranger to political crisis, his ever-present companion after rising to office in 1999 and particularly since winning a disputed election in March. Only now, he is up against his own supporters.

Over the past week, thousands of Guyanese citizens of East Indian descent have gone on a rampage in the eastern rice-growing and mineral-rich county of Berbice, on the Corentyne coast: Attacking a police station, assaulting an area magistrate and burning his car and generally railing against a government for which they had voted en masse.

The deterioration in relations with the Indian population comes just weeks before the government is expected to deal with two other major national problems, both involving already disgruntled blacks.

Authorities have another week or so to find a place for more than 2,000 mostly black street vendors to ply their wares. The vendors, who recently lost a court battle to remain in downtown Georgetown, have vowed that they will not be moved.

In Berbice, the administration also appears to be heading for confrontation with labour unions some 25 miles down the road from the scene of the past week’s troubles.

Officials have announced plans to conclude a deal handing over state bauxite reserves to Alcoa, the US-based aluminium giant. The unions have submitted a counterproposal to take over and run the industry in conjunction with a US partner but the government does not seem inclined to back them. So the workers have announced they will rise up to drive home their demands.

Charges of racism are already beginning to surface, with leaders of the largely black unions saying that although the Indian- dominated sugar industry has similar problems, the government continues to pump money to bail it out.

“We are going to fight to ensure that Alcoa does not come here. The workers can run it (the industry) and we are prepared to fight to protect our independence, ” said Raymond Gaskin, a consultant to the unions.

Jagdeo, absorbed by the conflicts swirling around his administration, has not been able to assemble a full cabinet. He now has a foreign minister but there is still no indication when he will fill key cabinet vacancies in trade, tourism, and legal affairs.

With half the year already gone, the 2001 national budget has yet to be presented to and approved by parliament. Jagdeo says he expects this will be done in the next few weeks but in the meanwhile, capital projects across the board remain stalled.

The latest trouble began when Indians in Berbice took to the streets last week to protest what they saw as police and state inaction in the wake of a spate of armed robberies along the coast. A mass march turned ugly when hundreds of the protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at the Albion Police Station.

Police then fired into the crowd, killing 48-year-old sugarcane cutter Shamshudeen Haniff and injuring three others. They usually use tear gas to disperse crowds or fire warning shots into the air.

Jagdeo was forced to fly to the area and to spend three days trying to appease residents angered by the use of deadly force. Junior police officers were transferred out of the area. A committee was set up to investigate why live bullets were used against the crowd. The police, who had complained they were hamstrung in preventing and responding to the robberies and other crime by a lack of equipment, were given a vehicle.

The protests, the killing, and the injuries are just the latest in a series of similar problems the administration has faced since starting a third term, but it is the first time that East Indians have turned against the government – perceived by Guyanese of African descent as belonging to the Indian community – with such ferocity.

Since March, Jagdeo has been forced to deploy troops to keep the peace between Indian and black areas along the lower east coast.

Most Indians have traditionally backed Jagdeo’s governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), while blacks have mostly voted for the main opposition People’s National Congress (PNC). This division ensures that racial tensions flare up regardless of which party is in power.

Claiming to have been marginalised and openly discriminated against, blacks in several east coast villages have periodically blocked the main east-west access highways with burning tyres and other debris to draw attention to their complaints.

Things changed for the worse dramatically in early May, when police found the bodies of three Indian males, including an eight- year old, who had been slain.

Indians quickly blamed the deaths on blacks from neighbouring villages. The police have yet to make arrests in the case. Heavily armed and helmeted troops now patrol the villages night and day in an effort to keep peace between the rival groups. State-funded non- partisan committees have begun to visit the communities to examine ways of easing tensions.

That combination appeared to be making some headway – offering Jagdeo some respite – when last week’s events in Berbice unfolded, signaling that the country’s post-election troubles will not simmer down any time soon.