by Carl Franklin
I mark the conclusion of 2005 and celebrate the beginning of 2006 by making another appeal for an end to the race politics that has left our country bereft of any real hope of substantial development anytime soon.
As I thought about the most dramatic way to communicate my appeal in the hope of addressing the feelings of vengeance that underlie our race politics, two resonant observations continually crossed my mind. The first was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will leave us blind and toothless.”
The second was my take on George Santayana’s, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I believe those who remember and live in the past are condemned to repeat its worst aspects. I should point out that “the past” in this article refers to the last 55 years of our nation’s history.
Our government is already blind and toothless, so I am not worrying that much about them. My concern is with the voters–the eyes and dentures of our politicians–without whom our politicians would be powerless to indulge their penchant for vengeance and thereby keep the worst aspects of our past alive for the wrong reasons.
We are at the proverbial crossroads in Guyana. We should either remember the past only as a reminder of its destructive effects on our nation or we should simply forget about it. We cannot afford to reprise the worst aspects of our past, which has never really left us.
Below, I reproduce the first stanza from our Song of the Republic by Cleveland W. Hamilton:
From Pakaraima’s peaks of pow’r
To Courentyne’s lush sands,
Her children pledge each faithful hour
To guard Guyana’s lands.
To foil the shock of rude invader
Who’d violate her earth,
To cherish and defend forever
The State that gave them birth.
Are we true to these words? Are we ensuring that our politicians stay true to these words? Do we realise that Guyanese politicians, not foreign invaders, are violating our earth? Are we prepared to foil our fellow Guyanese who invade our bottom houses, street corners, churches, temples, and mosques with their destructive race messages?
I say that it is high time we set about foiling the invaders.
We can do this by insisting on the promotion of a society in which good character as evidenced by integrity is valued above the “right” physical characteristic as evidenced by hair texture as a necessary qualification for public office; by insisting on a society in that respect is earned through goodwill towards all rather than through goodwill towards some; and by promoting a society in which merit is given precedence over connections in the awarding of jobs and contracts.
We must also insist on the fulfillment of the promise of a full and functioning democracy. Thus we must demand a functioning framework for inclusion of appropriate persons and groups in the decision-making process of our nation, as well as a functioning framework that allows for a full accounting for all expenditure of monies undertaken in our name and supposedly for our benefit.
We must not settle for mediocrity. The benign must not be allowed to become malignant or the exception be allowed to become the rule. So we must repudiate attempts to measure our economic, social and political accomplishments by what obtained up until 1992 or by any other politically convenient yardstick. We must always demand accomplishments that are appropriate to our time and circumstances and to the resources expended.
Guyanese must always remember that Guyana has been entrusted to all of us, and that it is in our collective interest to ensure our nation’s well-being. Consequently, we have to insist that the politicians we elect and delegate to achieve this goal serve in our nation’s best interests and not their or our selfish interests. This is the only way we can avoid the common destruction that awaits us, as well as avoid passing to posterity a bequest that even we would refuse.
I believe this generation of voters, beginning in 2006, is best positioned to rise to the task before us. No other has been this qualified to promote and implement the political changes our nation so desperately needs. A close look at the demographics of our population will confirm why.
I’ll use CIA estimates instead of the recently released census numbers because of the readily available demographics numbers. According to estimates contained in CIA- The World Factbook on Guyana’s July 2005 projected population, just over 70 percent, or 546,395, of Guyana’s population was born after 1955. That means only 30 percent of our population was born before 1955. And this 30 percent includes the 5 percent, or 39,000, of the total Guyanese population that is 65 years or over.
The CIA report also estimates Guyana’s military-age personnel– persons between the ages of 18-49– at 344,062 during 2005, meaning that the vast majority of our voters were also born after 1955 and have thus experienced the rule of both the PNC and the PPP.
This means that this group has had to bear the brunt of the effects of our politicians’ attempts to avenge every wrong, settle every score and reciprocate every slight. These voters know these experiences have not been good for them or their children. This is exactly why they have the credibility to declare that enough is enough.
Valerie Rodway in the fourth stanza of her Guyana The Free presciently declares:
With purpose and vigour we’ll carve our own fate
Unmoved by distraction, prejudice and hate,
Together we’ll strive for our new nation’s goal,
Inspired by goodwill, a kinship of soul.
My wish is that Guyanese of goodwill in every village, every ward, every town and every county will make this stanza an election-campaign cry. Their common sufferings have indeed created “a kinship of soul.” So they deserve a new nation.
