quote:Originally posted by Kari:quote:Originally posted by Mara:
The AFC are indeed in an unenviable dilemma. Their relevance and success lies not in expediency and compromises, but progressive whittling away of support from both sides through patience and understanding and staying the course with intact values and principles.
Excellent observation. In Guyana what you can do to make the country better, or what your vision for a better Guyana is, do not matter. The two over-riding dynamics are:
1. The ethnic majority of Indo-Guyanese.
2. The fear of Afro-Guyanese by this ethnic majority.
The old adage makes makes sense - you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Mara's thinking that Afro-Guyanese interests would be better served if they were to not alienate Indo-Guyanese holds some truth here. It would contribute to reducing this advantage the PPP has.
I beg to differ with the views expressed above pertaining the AFC and our ethnic-based voting pattern. Anyone who attended the AFC meeting in Richmond Hill could not help but noticed the early appearance of racial division in that party. Hard core Blacks with very little or no affinity for Indians congregated around Nigel Hughes and Trotman while the Indos shyly flocked around Ramjattan. One can noticed that the Indos as well as Afros do not show any genuine friendship towards each other. The AFC cannot and will bridge the racial divide any better than the PPP. The last elections results showed the AFC got only 3000 votes of its total of 28000 from region #6. How do we know how much of those 3000 are AFro-Guyanese from the Courantyne. The AFC won its seats based on ethnic voting. IT cannot claim title to being broadbased. Leave that for another day.