By Dr David Hinds


Two news items have caught my attention recently. The first relates to the wire-tapping of several citizens, including the president, in Trinidad and Tobago under the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) government. The other pertains to workers who, while cleaning a canal in Guyana, by-passed the section in front of the home of a well-known anti-government columnist.

The revelation that the PNM government or the prime minister authorized the wire- tapping of several prominent and not so prominent citizens is shocking, even for one who is cynical about governance in the Caribbean. The fact of the matter is that such extreme government action is an embarrassment for a region that often boasts of its sterling record regarding the rule of law. Some PNM leaders seem to be defending the action as part of the country’s fight against crime. But how could the fight against crime have been enhanced by tapping the phones of the president, the PNM’s own de facto deputy leader and the relatives of opposition politicians?

There may be several explanations for Mr Manning’s behavior. But the one that best explains it to my mind lies in the culture of maximum leader-authoritarian rule that has long taken root in the region. The enormous unchecked formal and informal powers of the heads of government and ruling parties have been a drag on the rule of law and democratic governance in the region. Many governments, including those in Trinidad and Tobago, were not fingered over the years because attention has been focused on the more extreme forms of despotic rule in Forbes Burnham’s Guyana, Eric Gairy’s Grenada and Patrick John’s Dominica. In fact, it is being suggested that the previous United National Congress (UNC) government, led by Basdeo Panday and the current prime minister, may have engaged in similar action.

The truth is that all Caribbean post independence governments have been authoritarian -- some more than others. Although the era of authoritarianism seemed to have subsided by the 1990s the general governance framework and culture it spawned has remained intact, as evidenced by the revelations in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Governments by their very nature will always be tempted to over-reach. Their functions, including the maintenance of law and order, give them a ready-made authoritarian framework. Hence it is incumbent on the citizenry and their organizations, which are today loosely called civil society, to keep government in check. But our Caribbean has developed a political tribalism that has paralyzed government oversight. Extreme behaviors of governments are tolerated out of tribal loyalty and the attendant fear of facilitating the rise to power of the other political tribe. And in Trinidad and Guyana, where race and ethnicity are major factors, this tribalism takes on a cultural outlook.

In Guyana, the government of one ethnic group governed for twenty eight years, most of which represented perhaps the most extreme form of authoritarianism in the region. The fall of that government in 1992 heralded the re-introduction of a “democratic” government dominated by the opposite ethnic group. But after eighteen years of “democratic” rule that government is anything but democratic. The recent incident of workers neglecting to clean the section of the canal in front of the residence of Freddie Kissoon, the most vocal anti-government columnist, is the latest in a long line of abuses by the government. One of the daily newspapers published the picture on its front page for all to see. The incident reflected a form of political pettiness that under normal circumstances might be overlooked. But this is the latest in a long line of similar actions by the government. Often these acts of political spitefulness afford a window into the more insidious form of authoritarian rule. In Guyana, the authoritarian government of the pre-1992 era is gone but the authoritarian framework it spawned has been jealously nurtured, protected and enhanced by the current government.

Attempts by some in the PNM and government spokespersons in Guyana to explain away these two incidents are clumsy at best. In the first place, explanations are forthcoming only because the evidence is overwhelming. The tendency to hide behind the rhetoric of democracy is a staple in the Caribbean, particularly in Guyana. But democratic governance has to be measured not just by democratic forms such as free elections but more importantly by the practice of the governments. If elections are free but government discrimination, spitefulness, disrespect for the rule of law and other forms of government over-reach are rife, then such governments cannot and should not be allowed to lay claim to the mantle of democracy.

November 22, 2010

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