I BELIEVE that once you have a message that is grounded in reason and truth, no matter how ridiculous it appears to others, you must not be shy in promulgating it because facts will always stand the test of time.
So, when David Hinds invited me to his programme a few weeks ago, I had no hesitation in appearing, despite his racial extremism, some of which was directed at me. I had to speak up for myself and many others who share my views, and not let Hinds and others of his ilk speak for me.
Politicians like to label and group media outlets into political camps. Politicians tend to keep away from the media organisations that are viewed as unsympathetic or hostile to their side. In so doing, they narrow their message and reach only their sympathising viewers who clamor to those avenues for their consumption of current affairs. I believe this is a fatal flaw.
The last US presidential election is a stark lesson for any politician seeking to understand political media reach. Kamla Harris went on a media blitz, but confined herself to the Liberal Democratic-leaning media outlets, and eschewed Republican- leaning conservative outlets.
Harris was essentially proselytising the politically-converted, and her message never reached the conservative segment of the population on a first-person basis. The conservative segment of the population did consume Harris’ message, but only after it was repackaged and spun by the conservative media outlets. On the other hand, Donald Trump was ubiquitous in the Liberal media space where they heard it directly from the horse’s mouth.
Repackaged and raw political news has vastly different effects on voters. This contributed largely to Trump winning the jostle for media space and the hearts of American voters.
I would like to use this concept to superimpose Guyanese political activism. Utilising our political historiography, I cannot trace any sustained period where the PNC made tangible attempts to win over the Indo-Guyanese voting bloc.
Instead, the PNC relied on manipulating election results and consolidating Afro-Guyanese support. If it was possible to win, election-after-election through election manipulation, there was no need for the PNC to enlarge its support base. Election manipulation of the 1970s and 1980s was not sustained by race; it was sustained by geopolitical strategic interest of western superpowers.
In fact, in the late 70s, Burnham’s PNC could not legitimately claim unitary dominance in the Afro support base due to the presence of Walter Rodney, who won the hearts of large segments of Afro-Guyanese.
The current General Secretary and other insiders of the PPP may hold a different view, but my evaluation led me to surmise that since attaining government in 1992, the PPP’s approach towards tangibly deepening its Afro support base was on full laissez faire. However, something changed in 2020. The incumbent administration attempted to manipulate the election results, the PNC-led coalition at many points, was on the brink of success, but this time it was not driven by geopolitical factors. It was almost entirely driven by a pliable African support base, largely motivated by a successful campaign of racialised fear of a PPP return.
Given these conditions, laissez faire could no longer work for the post-2020 PPP; it had to shift gear and pursue a deliberate policy to reach out to the Afro voting bloc. And the strategy is gaining grounds daily. Consider the results of the 2023 Local Government Elections, the attendance at the 2024 PPP Congress, and the gathering at the recent 2025 Babu Jaan commemoration of the Life and Times of Cheddie Jagan; there is no doubt that Afro-Guyanese are increasingly looking towards the PPP for leadership.
This means that the PNC and opposition forces are in a collective deficit, mainly because of the paucity of ideas to strategically reach out to East Indians. The core of the Opposition is made up of the PNC and AFC, which will drive the electoral efforts of the opposition, supported by a maniac fringe whose message is tailored to and increasingly saturated African base.
I don’t think that the PNC and its fringe element realised that the message of impending African doom which found sympathy in 2020 is rapidly losing its momentum and relevance as a tool for mobilising African support. So, while they pontificate the false lunacy that they speak for Africans, the African voting bloc is demonstrating that they are looking to other sources for their representation, setting a naught this grandiose hallucinatory psychotic political bespatter.
So, I will not be that ignorant to lump all Afro-Guyanese in one bundle and claim to speak for them, but I speak (at any fora) because I have a message grounded in reason and I believe people are listening. They will eventually filter out the vile racist epithets that were hurled in my direction and will make their choices in the interest of their family and community. With this perspective, the PPP looms large.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.