The Political-Mass Media-Racial Complex in Guyana

The new millennium juxtaposes different generations who were witnesses to the genesis of turmoil in Guyana. Since the year 1992, in which democracy returned to Guyana, opposition elements continue to be unreceptive to electoral defeats. The disinclination to concede electoral loss since 1992 has become a normative historical behavior in the Guyanese context. International observers have validated the four national elections in 1992, 1997, 2001, and 2006 as being free, fair, and transparent. Today, electoral defeat has a relationship with the infamous political/mass media/racial complex that constantly pursues the destabilization of the state and undermines nation-building. Essentially, this complex is a community of irrationality, engaging in a persistent dissemination of despair. This book focuses on politics, media, and race. The two main objectives of the work are: demonstrating the modus operandi and the dysfunctional consequences of this community of irrationality through the political/mass media/racial complex, and showing the rational behaviors that have held the society together since 1992. In the interest of building a strong nation, it may be useful to work toward a transformation of this community of irrationality to a community of rationality.

Dr. Prem Misir is currently the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana. He is also the author of seven books. His most recent publications are Ethnic Cleavage and Closure in the Caribbean Diaspora: Essays on Race, Ethnicity, and Class (2007) and Cultural Identity & Creolization in National Unity: the Multiethnic Caribbean (University Press of America, 2006).