DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

I THOUGHT I would simply let it be, the victory of the incumbent UNC leader and her vassals in the internal elections. But there are so many letters to the editor about the continuing tragedy that is the fate of UNC baseline supporters with this victory, pointing to the continuing neglect and discrimination at the hands of the Government, the incumbent in power serving the needs of its tribe to the relative neglect of the other, that I feel compelled to offer my two cents on this issue.

The tragic irony of this victory for the UNC leader's supporters is that they know very little about the nuances of the tribal politics which is our trademark, that if you lose in the bigger picture you are doomed to suffer. Their only reality, just as with the other side, is to vote for someone who looks like them, not out of choice really, but instead being drawn into this mindset by the racial divisiveness of the politics.

That seed was originally sown in history with the tensions arising between incoming indentures and freed blacks over the bargaining power of the latter, and this institutionalised into the present with the formation after independence of two race-based parties, the PNM for Africans and the UNC for East Indians.

Within this system, issues pointing to the national good never mattered, only the colour of the skin and texture of the hair with all its attendant evils of discrimination against the other side in all forms and fashion. It is instructive that in Guyana, even with its demography similar to ours, Indians and Africans almost evenly distributed, they managed to mitigate this prejudice of one side against the other by the system of proportional representation. But our leaders here would have none of such, only the Westminster system of first past the post, which serves their need of reliance on the tribe without having to account.

The problem for UNC supporters in this jaundiced system of politics which favours one side and discriminates against the other is that since independence the UNC has had its turn only thrice, once partially so in 1986, then more fully in 1995 and again in 2010. But otherwise, it has all been PNM with UNC supporters conned into the illusion that their day will come.

One can try to explain PNM dominance in the politics in many ways: its unity as a party, the uncompromising loyalty of its supporters, an election machinery which seems to favour it, as much as with David Granger and Guyana before the timely intervention of Mia Mottley, who laid bare the faults in a system that almost endorsed manipulated election results.

But what of the UNC? Is it that its current leadership is aware of the illusion of victory, unlike the supporters, but play the game nevertheless, appealing to the tribal instinct that never asks questions about Mai, about her record of real service to the people, about competence, about character, about the motive of those who continue to prop her up as the leader of the future, only for the mess of pottage to be had for th