Like the river everything returns and the cycle continues

Feb 05, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Some are calling for politically outstanding figures of Guyana to be judged in the context of their own times. This international trend has some merit, since the wisdom of hindsight is often too harsh or rosy.
But this same approach must be extended to all in the same context and not when it is politically convenient to praise or damn our influential figures for partisan purposes.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan and PPP pre-independence Governments were the best this country ever had.
There were feelings prosperity and progress were being made with regards to education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructures, diversification of the economy, research and development, and Amerindian affairs.
During this pre-independence period, the PPP when in office excelled. The PPP had inherited from the British a very highly educated and professional civil service and bureaucracy.
This included well-trained education and healthcare workers, an honest police force, enthusiastic scientists etc. These able people give Dr. Jagan and his PPP Government their professional services to move the country forward.
They were responsible for the achievements of the PPP Government. These contributions of numerous unsung people mostly of African heritage during those times went and are still unrecognised.
The descendants of African slaves were the first locals to be formally educated, trained and served in the civil and professional services. I have yet to meet someone of African heritage of that era who speaks disrespectfully of Dr. Jagan. They still show respect for his contributions to Guyana.
During the Burnham/PNC years, the PPP lost many of their bright lights and failed dismally to attract newcomers. By initially boycotting parliaments, many PPP members had no source of livelihoods to support their own families. Nationalisation of local industries meant that many people who publicly supported or were sympathetic to the PPP were now unable to find employment in PNC Government controlled industries.
The PPP in supporting nationalisations in effect cut off the sources of incomes for those opposed to the Government.
The same scenarios existed in Government and Government-influenced businesses and corporations. Consequently, most of the educated and professional cores sympathetic to the PPP were forced to leave the country. (The same thing happened to all those who opposed the Government, e.g., Dr. Walter Rodney could not find employment at UG).
In addition, in order to survive some former PPP stalwarts and high-profile supporters joined the PNC.
One major unintended consequences of the leadership of the PPP in offering critical support to the PNC Government policies is the self-destruction of the PPP and the drastic reduction in the quality of its leadership core. The PPP without its stars was an ineffective opposition. It was on the sidelines with unproductive disruptions.
One strategy was asking sugar workers to go on strike even though knowing these workers have hungry mouths to feed at home. The female workers were on the frontlines in path of heavy machineries (My mother and her friends were there).
The most unethical strategy was to ask schoolchildren to leave their classrooms thereby not only disrupting their education, but putting them in harm’s way. Most of us were disgusted that an established political party would use high school children as political pawns.
We were contemptuous of these unscrupulous PPP personnel who risked these children’s future.
Another dangerous strategy was stopping ballot-boxes from leaving polling stations; the ordinary people cajoled by low-level PPP personnel were sent into life-threatening situations, while the PPP cadres hid.
These futile and destructive tactics were just an annoyance to the PNC’s thugs in office.
Sadly, the intellectual poverty of the PPP and its leadership was there for all to see. For example, at one symposium at UG, where the PYO representative spoke at length what Karl Marx and Comrade Lenin said ad nauseam on the political situation. Dr. Josh Ramsammy innocently said: Comrade, all that may be good, but what do you think and we would like to hear your own views.
This unfortunate PPP comrade was dumbstruck and stuttered with ‘but…but…’ Dr Ramsammy interceded to save him any further embarrassment. I still remember his name, but would save him any further embarrassment.
The PPP had failed to showcase any intellectual talent in its party at a University audience.
This absence of the PPP from the political arena was filled by the WPA with its wide assortment of brave and committed people. These proved to be the only intellectual and political match for the Burnham’s PNC regime with its own hard-core henchmen.
One additional failure of PPP during these ‘critical support’ years was not sending people to be professionally trained and to be a Government in waiting.
The PPP was sending people for ideological training without any governing and professional skills, adding to their further intellectual and leadership unpreparedness.
Consequently, when the PPP eventually came back into power, the grossly impoverished PPP leadership was not up to the mammoth task of rebuilding the country, a process that required all patriots.
No one seemed to have learned the lessons of the Burnham’s PNC that a Government’s policies however brilliant and well-intentioned cannot be executed without proper personnel.
The PPP and its leadership had not yet realised the contributions of a professional civil service and bureaucracy towards their success in previous years in office. They failed to learn the lessons of the PNC years.
The PPP supporters who remained in the country were mainly sugar, rice and other agricultural workers.
The PPP did not have qualified, able and dedicated professionals and leaders in their ranks.
The major mistakes of the PPP and its leadership were: not recognising their limitations, not asking the WPA with its capable personnel to join the Government and not moving towards ethnic healing.
The biggest blunder of the PPP was failure to put someone of the stature and moral integrity as the Head of state, e.g., Mr. Eusi Kwayana, with Dr. Jagan as the operational Prime Minister.
The message of inclusion, unity, and integrity were not sent. Instead, the PPP and its leadership displayed no spirit of moral rightness and human decency, or any semblance of any Gandhian spirit of love, brotherhood and forgiveness. The PPP failed the people and country.
On the death of Dr. W. Rodney, the flames of hatred were fanned once again and many people on both sides lost hope and returned to the old ways of distrust.
Dr. Jagan and the PPP missed a golden opportunity to rise above the pettiness within his party ranks and show some greatness and statesmanship as seen earlier.
The modest economic gains made by Mr. Desmond Hoyte were squandered.
The unprepared PPP members placed in responsible positions now attracted the worst set of people and elevated these to high positions.
Greed, corruption, and lust for power and wealth began to raise their ugly heads.
What the PPP had experienced and condemned in the tyrannical years, they now emulated and practiced, except that they were more efficient and clever about their misdeeds.
The people of the country were further abused and neglected. The trauma, poverty, and flight of Guyanese from Guyana continued.
These PPP Government supporters ran, anywhere but here from their own electoral choices. Who set the stage for this second round of events which contributed to our demise?
Now the cycle is complete, the ‘gang of thugs of the PNC making’ that once ran the country has been replaced by another ‘gang of thugs of the PPP making.’
And as before, the people still suffer irrespective of ethnicity, history, poverty and location.
The same thuggish strategies are being used to keep us in subjugation.
The question is how long before the simmering volcano erupts and consume innocent and guilty in its wake of destruction?
The second question we have to ask ourselves is: when are we going to look at each other and find common bond in our oppression?
Our history is one in which we have found togetherness and fought tyranny. We are better than those who tell us otherwise.
We have great and deep roots; we can stand proudly together again and see another person simply as a fellow traveler in this journey of life. It begins with me and you.
Seelochan Beharry

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