Tag Archives: reform

GUYANA: Politics: Aubrey Norton Is At A Fork In The Road – By Ralph Ramkarran

The fundamental objective of a political party is to gain political office and implement its policies for the benefit of the country. After months of grueling effort, Aubrey Norton has finally succeeded in overcoming ‘factionalism’ in the PNC by being nominated for a seat in the National Assembly and being elected as Opposition Leader. The word ‘factionalism’ is adopted from an editorial in Village Voice, an internet newspaper that is generally sympathetic to the Opposition. It discussed Norton’s journey from candidate to Opposition Leader.

It is generally difficult in Guyana to interrogate factionalism in the PPP and PNC because information about internal differences of opinion is unavailable or unreliable. In the case of Mr. Norton’s rise to the leadership of the PNC, it is a bit easier because  Continue reading

Guyana Politics: The Familiar Ring of the Elections Season – By Ralph Ramkarran

The Familiar Ring of the Elections Season 

By Ralph Ramkarran – 6th October 2018

Local government elections are to be held on November 12. With it, the never-ending stream of suspicions emerged as the Government established new local government units and merged others. The Opposition argued that these were done to give an advantage to the Government and the Opposition, through one of its representatives, promptly launched legal proceedings. This event provided the explanation for the ‘disappearance’ of the Chief Elections Officer, Mr. Keith Lowenfield, on one of the most critical days of the elections process, namely, the day after the submission of lists, when corrections have to be made and defects rectified.       Continue reading

THE FALL OF THE PPP – by Ralph Ramkarran

 THE FALL OF THE PPP

Ralph Ramkarran

Ralph Ramkarran

Posted on May 23, 2015 – by Ralph Ramkarran

The PPP’s boast has always been that it never lost elections. While it gained the highest votes in 1964, it was the PNC that was invited to form the government, which it did in coalition with the United Force. The slogan of ‘cheated not defeated’ resounded through the decades. The slogan is once again rearing its head.

The claim that it lost as a result of fraud allows it to maintain the delusion, for the benefit of its supporters, that it has never lost elections. This also serves to protect its leaders and policies from critical analysis and corrective action and revive its historic claims to victimology, now of an openly posturing ethnic political entity, to sustain the sympathy of its innocent supporters against the tribal hordes. Continue reading

ON ETHNICITY – by Ralph Ramkarran

ON ETHNICITY

Ralph Ramkarran

Ralph Ramkarran

Posted on April 11, 2015  – by

I must confess that I have had an ambivalent attitude to ethnicity for most of my life. My mother was a Hindu and so were all my relatives on both sides of my family. I grew up in the midst of celebrations of Hindu religious festivals, tempered by the dominant influence of the Lutheran Church in my mixed community, as in much of Guyana.  Even though I was socialized as a Hindu and, therefore, considered myself, whatever the reality, as Indian by race, my approach to my own ethnicity was determined by factors that had little to do with high principle.

In my mid to late teenage years after I discovered girls, I unconsciously developed a certain approach on the issue of ethnicity, dictated by my dark complexion and curly hair which caused me to be viewed in a particular way.   Continue reading

%d bloggers like this: