Unity is afar-offdrcamThe people of Guyana are ready to set aside racial

divides, but the politicians won't let go of the past

,John Young in Georgetown

men in DemeraralGuyana] are never an'gry md the women arenever cross. Life flows

along on a perpetuai strem of love.'

So rrore the novelisl Anlhonl Trol.lope on his risil to Lhe South Ampri-mmmtryin 1859.

Much water has flowed underGuyana s many bridges since then.On Milch 25 the country goes to thepolls and we ile toid thar. whoeverwins, there wi1Ibe many mgn, menand women.

For a South Afiican, there is a

fmilitr frcl ro the piace: Guym heldfat dlections for the fust rime in 1992,

and the major political ptrties supporl is ethnically based. Formersocialist ieaders are grappling u'ithglobalisation and rf irg to sell thelrproducts to the Euopem Union. Theelection comission is uder fire.

I ihought the oniy links betwrenGuyana and South Africa werecricket and Sir Richard Luyi, thepre-independence governor In thecapita'I. Ceorgetown. I lefl the cenral parh on one of fte brmd avenuesmd neariy-feU into a roadside mal.An Afrikaans-speaking Rastamansaved me. Clealy there was more tothis place thm I had thought.

The Dutch one mntrolled Guymamd they built a sea s'all to protect thenerow sfip of lmd on which 90 90 ofGuyma's 780 000 people Uve.

The CEO of the state-run GuymaSugar Corporation, Brian webb. aSouth African, iives in "Goedver.wachting" , 'A lot of things made mefeel at home," he says, "lil<e DubanRoad and Mandela Avenue." Webbhas also been made to I'eel uelcome:"The Guyanese have been veryfriendly md very hospitable"

Bur rhe pre-election political dis.couse is ftr fi:om Sriendly According10 Clive Thoros, a developmmt stud-ies academic, "politi6 is a malignantmd mal*olent force" in Guyma.

The 1991 @Nm hs lndo4ulmsemaking up 49.4". of the popu.lalion:Afro-Guyanese 35,69b ; aboriginalAmerindians 6,8%; with whites,Chinese and mlxed race accoutingfor the rest.

The latest opinion poll gives thePeople s Progressive Parlv. Ci\-ic5000. and the People s National Con-gI ess,/Reform 36% - a depressinglysimile ratio to the race grcups theyhave come to represent.

Both major parties have the smeroot: the People's Pro$esslve Pafty(PPP). As Guyma approached inde.pendence, Forbes Burnham broke

away to form the People's NationalCongress (PNC). The PPP won theI961 eiection, but Cheddi Jagan s

socialism maile the British andAmericans nervous at the time ofCuba md the "Domino Theory".

In the 1964 election, overseen byBritatl prcportional representationm used md Brmham tme 10 porerTVo yem later Gulana gained indFpendence. The PNC rerained poweruntiltheendof the Cold We The PPP.lFims thar the 1964 vote ws rjgged b)

Britainmd the CIA. md that the PNCrigged every election thereafter

ln typial pmr oionial ircn5: Bun-ham moved quickl) inlo the non-aligned camp and nationalised alimajor industry After his death in1985 Desmond Hoyte became presi'dent and started to iiberalise theemnomy In 1992 Ho),te ntrro$ l)- lostthe election to Jagm. Umest eruptedin 1997 when rhe PPP won again.Jagm died in I99;. Next week s ele.tlon will be President BharratJagedo's firct as m incumbent.

Eleven pilties ile contesting tllepoll. bur feu' will u in ill-of rhP 6J

ffits. Ttreethnicline of "rit, orgmi*and raily'ma] deflect some lndoCuyanese from the PPP The combination of the puiy for AmerindianImpie, the Gul'ffia Action Panfi mdthe old-schml sociali.b of the !\'oriiing People s Allmce could win a seai

6 they try to brcker a goverment ofmtional wit]]

But, judging lrom the parties'media mpaigns, unity is a distmtdr"m. The independent media moni.toring panel's fist report comentedon the "two extremes of Guyana spea[itr media mlx - govermentalconfols at one end of the spectrmmd a ffiry&EfoHli at the ofier Theend mult is m impudent destructionof norms and codes of conduct onwhich civil society is based."

Both parties run bizarre T\radverts in which actors portray theleader of lhe opposition parl] ashelpless, stupid and mctring.

One newspaper ran a headline:Howe charged with moisting schml-boys. The Holte in question was aschoolteacher In another case. anews organisation was accused offocusing on a PPP sticker on a carinvolved in m accident.

Under Burnhm. newsprint wasa restricted import item. He alsointroduced a developrnent supportcommunications course to train"jounalists" to advertise state pro-grmes. The couse still exists mdthe Guyaru Chronitle is m orgm ofthe state/goverment/paltr Radio isalso state contxoued. The "scar!. ftee

for-a1l" among the 20 televisionstations has to be seen to be believed.SeLf-styled talk show hosts abuse mdaccuse with abmdon.

The National Swey of PoliticalAttitudes founcl that 5690 of thecoutr]' is not happy with the sork-ings of democrac!: Of those, themjorit] de AfreGuymse md IndGGul-mese.

Thomas's assessment of this:"Ou greatest asset - our rich cu1-

tual dl1'ersitl' - ls nou' our ltrgestliahil it1:''

"People want decencyback in this country. Theywant to be able to relateto one another in a civilisedway; they are fed up withdivision and people whopreach division"

Jagedo says: "Ou theme is love.mit,I one big family inciuding allGulaese. People want decency backin this comtry: They want to be ableto relate to one mother iI a clvilisedway; ihey are fed up $'ith division mdpeople who preach division. "

At a press conferenre across tosrI heard the same thing. An lndo-Guyanese womil ciaimed the PNCwas running a "campaign of all-inciusiveness". It was "sad that thePPP is stooping to such levels. it isdisguting to ali people of Guyma".

PNC mtional chair Robert Corbinbelieves there has been some move-ment on the race'in-politics issue:"The first corect dereIopment is thaltherc is open rccognition that thereis a prcblem-"

Things can easily be misinter-preted. "Because of our politicalclimate. even if the PPP indulges inpolitical discrimination, it is not

difficult tbr that to be taken as racialdiscrimination." Both parties clalnru bp multi-elhnic but lhe poll saysneither wili attract 1090 of the"other' race group.

An lndo-Guyanese businessmanbelieves that the day after the poll willbe "riot day as usua-l' md the laryell'black secfin forees sill do no]hing .

''Race free zone" si[ms arc elPn '

\rhere and my experience rvas of ;r

friendlt: multiracial socjew but Jag.-do says: "Election periods tre alwavs!€tv diYisive. "

He is oplmisic ftougl r: Eslwialllwith the:oung people. Thet, don'rcary 0re baggage of the past. Peoplcae just tired of this mce politics. '

Corhin agrcs: "Bolh pmies moE-nise that this countrJ Cannot movefoir.ild without co-operation. '

But lheir media cmpaigns shou'tiut it is the politiciors u:ho @'t let go

ol thp past. th ich is as hotly contpst-ed as the present.

To the PPE Jagan is a NelsouMandela-like figure tr'ho endured 28

years in the trilderness. Accordingto Corbin, the pre-independenceloting system prcduced very skewedresults and it was the PPP whowouldr't accept democracll

There's no agreement on Mmdeiaeither. Jagedo says: "The one thingthat uied us here irl Guyma wtr thestruggle of the South A.ftim pmple."

Corbin says that the PPP wereIatecomers ro the solidarjty campaign: "When it became politicaliynice it was a useful platform forthem, but it never gah'anised andunited us as it ought to bave done."

Whichever partL wins the elcc.tion, there is much work to do.' Much of Guyana's asset base isstill in state hands and mighi be dif'ficult to sell if the privatisationdebate reaches a conclusion. Guymahas baLtite. the raw material of alu-

miniun. Before nationalisationCanadian company ALCAN emlployed 8 000 people. Nou jobs num-ber in the hundreds and one of theplants is almost closed.

,- uvana Drociuces the WOrld'S

(rm;x,t*;::f;T;:x,[dustry is on the verge of collapseand sugar production is stil] below1976 ievels. ihe year the Sugar Cor-porxrion $as nauonaiised. A suh-sidian,of Murray & Roberls (SouthA-frim) nos'manages it. Govermentsupporrers wart suga to stay in "thehand. oI the [orkers but il nepdsinvestnent.

"Some of the technology is frornthe 1930s," says Webb. The WorldBank ma1 o[fe] lo3ns for moderni-sation and offshore oil could boostthe economy Touism has mlimitedpotentiai.

Persuadingthis South African toretwn will not be difficult. Gu- anese

hospitality is overwheiming.The vasl inrerior has the brearh-

taking 223m Kaieteur FalIs, hugerivers and lush forests. Georgetomis a channlng if $mewhat dilapidatedold colonial town, the grid patternfoUowing the canals of the diligentDutch. Dignified unoden houses linethe te-lined avenues with distinctive"Demerila shutters" to iet in the cmlAtlantic bffize. Unesco is considedngit as a s0rld heritage site.

Trcllope had one criticism of thecapjtai: "If tirere be a deficiency inGeorgetour. il is rn respecL to cabs ...about noonday one's incLhation forwalking becomes subdued. Cabswould certaidy be m addition to t}leluuies of the place."

Thls is mother mpect of moderrlGuyma that South Africans wouldrecognise: Georgetou,n norr hasthouwds of tuis.

Election watch: A man rides past €mpaign posteE for the PeoPle's Prcgressive Party in GeorEetown. Riots

erupted when the party won the 1997 election - there are fears ol gimilar violence next week' PHoTo: aP