Young voters will be critical in who wins the next elections

Jul 08, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
In 2011, a very large section of the young population in Guyana will be between the 19 to 22-year age group. This section of the population will arguably be the most critical in deciding who wins the next general elections, providing they are all registered voters who vote on Election Day. The reason I believe this group is so crucial for the next elections is that many of them would have either lived their entire lives or most of it until now under the rule of the PPC/C government. This young population would have never experienced anything from the PNC era.
The same way the Obama movement (the then opposition in the US) strategically targeted young people throughout all 53 states to get seriously involved in the electoral process, is the same way our local opposition needs to reach our youth as election 2011 draws nearer.
It is important to recognise that a lot of these young adults today were either in primary or secondary school when extra judicial killings began to be a news staple among the media stories from the late nineties to now. These young minds would have witnessed the years of phantom killings that stalked the land taking with it the lives of many young Afro Guyanese men. These young people will remember the many roadblocks at Buxton and other parts in Guyana; the many shoot outs that occurred through the streets of Georgetown during the period when organised crime fought crime.
I use the term organised crime fighting crime loosely because these same young people would remember that the now incarcerated drug lord Roger Khan in on record as saying that he and his organisation personally were involved in the fight against crime in Guyana after the 2001 jailbreak.
This young population would have certainly questioned how a boss criminal could be involved in a fight against crime in a democratic society. They would have certainly wondered how a so-called democratic government can utilize the help of a known criminal to work with its police force.
Many of the young people in Guyana today would remember the shooting to death of Yohance Douglas and the maiming of Ronston Gray, as they were travelling home from an early Saturday morning basketball game. And if some of them were too young to remember that, they would surely know of the 14-year-old boy who was severely burned in a police station and the recent killing of 16-year-old Kelvin Fraser.
These are a much abbreviated recall of some of the fearful and dreadful acts that many young people in Guyana would have witnessed being carried out by the coercive arm of the state.
Young people today are very aware of the extreme difficulties of finding gainful employment in Guyana. Many of the young graduates from the University of Guyana and other educational facilities know very well about the scarcity of jobs that exists within the Guyanese job market. Many within the young population really want to see change in Guyana. Many young people with qualifications want to be able to find gainful employment in Guyana, regardless of their name, family status or the colour of their skin.
The opposition needs to seriously think of crafting policies that cater to the young who are the future of this nation. Part of the campaign for election 2011 is ensuring that young people are registered to vote. They also need to ensure that every effort is exhausted at getting the young of Guyana to go out and vote at the next election.
Change must come to Guyana. Change is in popular demand among most Guyanese living in and out of Guyana.
As the opposition prepares to join forces and demonstrate the maturity of Guyanese politics while showing the strength of unity, the young people of Guyana must also show their maturity in accepting the responsibility of becoming registered and going out on Election Day and voting.
Richard Francois

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