Politics of 'Alliance' Spins RICKEY SINGH COLUMN Guyana Chronicle April 18, 1999 AS IF the years of social divisions that have plagued plural societies like Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are not enough of a burden, a very divisive propaganda thrust was made last week by opposition politicians that could stir the pot of race politics in these Caribbean Community states. And the speed and fury with which the governing parties of these two countries have responded to a media report of a secret political alliance they are said to be forging, have served to underscore their own sensitivity to the implications for their respective domestic political situation. Some of the accusations hurled at their opponents in Port-of-Spain and Georgetown were that the propaganda offensive about a People's Progressive Party-United National Congress alliance, were `racist-oriented', `inflammatory', `politically mischievous' and `deliberately diversionary. The developments came against the background of a private visit over the Easter weekend to Guyana by Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, his wife and his daughter and others, and during which he paid a brief courtesy call on President Janet Jagan, widow of the PPP's founder-leader, Cheddi Jagan. While other sections of the Trinidad media criticised Mr Panday for failing to make a prior announcement about his departure from the country, even though for a private visit, the `Newsday' newspaper published an article last week claiming that a major alliance was in the making between Guyana's governing PPP and Panday's governing UNC. Moreover, according to the `Newsday' article - which had no comments from either Mr Panday or Mrs Jagan, but responses from their domestic opponents - the Trinidad Prime Minister had discussed the alliance idea with President Jagan. The leader of the main opposition People's National Congress (PNC), Mr Desmond Hoyte, and Mr Keith Rowley of the main opposition People's National Movement (PNM) were reported as expressing their own deep apprehension about any such political alliance. Hoyte was quoted as stating that the proposed alliance "is a troubling development" which his party has been closely monitoring and was convinced that "something is developing between the two (PPP-UNC) parties". Rowley, an unsuccessful challenger to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning for the leadership of the PNM, said a PPP-UNC alliance could "impact significantly on regional politics". That both the UNC and PPP are predominantly supported by voters of Indian descent has not been overlooked either. More than Rowley, Hoyte's comments were evidently designed to convey some kind of conspiracy by the PPP-UNC. And the suggestion in the article of the likelihood of Trinidadian soldiers moving into Guyana in the event of a major political unrest, touched a raw nerve with both Mr Panday and the Guyana Minister of Information, Moses Nagamootoo, denouncing it as being "baseless" and "potentially inflammable". The General Secretary of the PPP, Donald Ramotar, said that Hoyte had "so devastated the image of the PNC following the December 1997 general election that he now finds himself with a serious internal party problem including the question of his leadership... "But he is not satisfied with the diversions he creates at the local level away from his own leadership problems", said Ramotar. "Hoyte now wants to drag the Caribbean region and Trinidad and Tobago in particular into the messy politics of his party". It is unfortunate that the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister did not consider it necessary to announce his private visit to Guyana, largely spent in Guyana's interior region that, he said, he always wanted to visit but never did. Visits and Alliances However, the region's media, including those of Trinidad and Tobago, should be aware that desirable as it is for the public to know about the visits abroad, private or otherwise, of a head of government, precedents exist across the region of leaders of government leaving their respective countries without any prior announcement on private visits. There is no point now in identifying any of these government leaders or to emphasise the positive side of why it is better to communicate with the public about their overseas visits. What should clearly be encouraged, however, is that more of our political leaders, in and out of government, should undertake private visits to one another across the region, exchange personal telephone numbers, socialise and, generally, develop and strengthen personal relations that could foster a better climate for dealing with the business of the people of the Caribbean Community. Be that as it may, whatever the motive that inspired the comments of the PNM's Rowley and the PNC's Hoyte about a PPP-UNC "alliance" - dismissed by Minister Nagamootoo as "the figment of racist propaganda" - surely no one with any sense of Caribbean political history should ignore the political alliances, of varying forms, that have existed at different phases among established political parties in this region. Of relevance to note here is the existence of an alliance of political parties in CARICOM that actually met, under the auspices of Panday's UNC - and including now governing parties in Barbados, St. Lucia and Guyana - at the height of the campaign in Guyana for an end to rigged elections and restoration of electoral democracy. Surely, there was nothing sinister or conspiratorial about the then alliance of opposition parties. Nor was there anything "troubling" when first ex-Prime Minister Manning and subsequently ex-Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford of Barbados came up with their respective ideas about closer cooperation among Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados (Manning) or a confederation of the three states (Sandiford). It was President Jagan who proposed that Mr Sandiford prepare a paper outlining his ideas for a confederation. Mr Manning, then Prime Minister, agreed. Both Mr Panday and Mr Hoyte were then in opposition. Panday has since won an election to become the first Trinidadian of East Indian descent in his twin-island state. Mr Hoyte has lost two consecutive free and fair elections (1992 and 1997) and continues to show his frustration in opposition politics after 28 years of rule by the PNC. I doubt that any serious attempt was made by either Rowley or Hoyte to determine the accuracy of any report about a UNC-PPP political alliance. If any section of the media wants to know whether a PPP-UNC alliance was indeed discussed, then either of the parties to such a discussion should have been asked for a comment. Confirmation can hardly come from their known respective political opponents. This seems elementary. Rowley, at best, may have been expressing his personal views, to which he is certainly entitled. In fairness, his spin was rather restricted and more implicit. But Hoyte's comments and spins are of an entirely different political character and reveal so much of the post-election baggage of bitterness and frustration that his leadership continue to sustain within the PNC. The political scientist, Selwyn Ryan, with his known style of approach to Guyanese party politics, has despairingly expressed the hope that Guyana learns from the conflicts in the Balkan states with their tragedies of ethnic cleansing, and that Trinidad and Tobago, in turn, learns from Guyana. Distressing as the politics of Guyana remain, I want to believe that for all their deficiencies in facing the challenges of communal politics, neither the PPP nor the PNC has any political design to cause Guyana to degenerate into a "Balkan tragedy". Nor, has either the UNC or the PNM done anything so foolish to justify such fears in Trinidad and Tobago.