At Carter Center, Dr. Jerry Jailall held up sign “Guyana thanks President Carter for restoring democracy, ending PNC dictatorship” – Carter’s intervention saved Indo-Guyanese from PNC oppression
People ask me why did I fly to the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta to hold up my sign, “Guyana thanks President Carter for restoring democracy, ending PNC dictatorship.” I lived through those brutal dictatorship years and it is important that we not forget the lessons of the past. While there was national suffering, Indo-Guyanese suffered the most as they were excluded, marginalized and hounded by the PNC regime. It was the closest we came to apartheid. I wanted to express the gratefulness of our nation to President Carter for turning our destiny around. Many talked to me about my sign and took pictures of my sign I held up at various parts of the Carter campus and at the King Memorial bus/train station. The Carter Center’s involvement was a tipping point for Guyana. By 1992, the country had reached a point of hunger and starvation, the economy and infrastructure had collapsed, poverty and fear stalked the land. The PNC government was in full control of “the commanding heights of the economy.” They controlled all the military forces, all the Ministries, and its supporters were entrenched in all the Government sectors. That made it easy for the PNC to continue rigging successfully as it controlled all things. Hopelessness enveloped the nation and people fled to any country for a better life. I remember PNC enforcers in military vehicles swooping down and seizing bread from vendors at Bourda Market and trampling the bread on the ground, as flour was banned. You could have gone to jail for “uncustomed” goods if you were found with flour, split peas, and almost anything, as everything was in short supply, and smuggling thrived to provide goods to the people.
As rigging seemed embedded in the DNA of the PNC, in 2020, the PNC attempted rigging as in the old days when it routinely rigged to stay in power, until Dr. Cheddi Jagan of the PPP approached the Carter Center for help. We must remember that in the 28 years of the PNC’s uninterrupted rule, it was the PPP that bore the brunt of the stealing of elections by the PNC by being shut out of office. It was the PPP that led the fight for freedom from the PNC dictatorship. Others such as the WPA and groups for democracy joined along the journey and contributed to the struggle in various ways. The independent Stabroek News, for instance, played a key role in the democracy struggle. KN had not existed then. The Catholic Standard, Mirror, Dayclean (a 2-page letter-size leaflet), and Caribbean Contact (published by the Caribbean Conference of Churches) were the major free press. It is traumatic to recall those PNC years.
The PNC’s penchant for rigging and staying in power “by any means necessary” was well established by 1992 when the Carter Center brokered free and fair elections with counting of ballots at the place where you voted. That was a gamechanger. Any time the PNC has been in power, they don’t want to give up. When elections were due in 1978, instead of holding elections on schedule, the PNC did a referendum asking whether the Constitution should be changed. They rigged the referendum too. This extended their stay by 2 years; elections were held in 1980 instead of 1978. The PNC was always good at predicting how many seats it will win, and predicted it will win a two-thirds majority, which it did in 1985, when Hoyte rigged worse than Burnham. Elections were supposed to be held in 1990 but PNC extended their rule again by two years; elections were held in 1992 instead. During the PNC’s uninterrupted reign between 1964-1992, the more people were punishing, the more seats the PNC “took.” In 2018 when the PNC Government fell in a vote of no-confidence triggered by Mr. Charrandas’s vote against the PNC Coalition, instead of resigning, the PNC held on for 2 years and elections were held in 2020. The facts show that it is the PNC which has an indelible record of rigging. As it is now, you cannot rig with the current process where there is transparency at the polling place, and the votes are counted in the presence of all parties and results posted right away. So President Carter has a lasting legacy when we talk about restoring democracy in Guyana. As my sign says, “Guyana thanks President Carter for restoring democracy, ending PNC dictatorship.”
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate
