We are nearing that magical number of fifty

May 26, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One of the most offensive political expressions I encountered in my long, long examination of politics in Guyana came from Dr. Henry Jeffrey. He wrote in the Stabroek News of January 29, 2010, the followings; “I do not believe that our country is in this condition because over the last half a century our politicians have been wicked and intended this kind of backwardness.”
Certainly Jeffrey couldn’t be that naïve to think that since Independence our politicians have not directed personal wickedness toward others and the implications of such mean-spiritedness haven’t weakened social development.
The examples are so glaring and are contained in so many books and manuscripts that one can accuse Jeffrey of analytical dishonesty. Two leaders that practiced personal vindictive politics more than any other leader anywhere in the world in the 21st century were Mrs. Janet Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo.
The sheer mass of backwardness in this country since Independence may not have occurred because of personalized politics but it has contributed. I will not dignify Jeffrey’s nonsense by offering examples suffice it to say that personal wickedness is inherent in countries with old political cultures.
I have seen that human fault in parties other than the PPP and PNC. I have seen it in all the major parties including the Working People’s Alliance, Alliance For Change and maybe all the major civil society groups. That has been and is the political culture of Guyana.
Today we celebrate 49 years of Independence. The new Guyana that we anticipate will come with a new government, will achieve zero if we do not move with supersonic speed to remove this backwardness. Jeffrey and I may disagree on the source of the backwardness, but Guyanese must not deceive themselves into thinking that we are not, as one business icon described, “Piss Poor.”
We are nearing fifty years of Independence and no human on Planet Earth can be so idiotic to deny that after fifty year of Independence with our largeness, small population, and massive wealth, this country should have been a rival with Singapore or Malaysia. It is no exaggeration to say that to compare Singapore with Guyana in 2015 is literally to compare Haiti with the United States
When I read last week that UG will be introducing a system where students can have self-service facility in the use of photocopy machines, I was touched by a strong wave of sadness. When I entered graduate studies in Canada in 1978, the university library had a number of photocopy machines on each level. You take the book off the shelf, insert your coins and serve yourself. That was thirty-six years ago. Now after 49 years of Independence, our only university is about to put one photocopy machine in a self-service mode
The 2015 election campaign is over. It has passed gloriously into history where it will be gloriously recorded on the pages of the history books, but in that campaign, memories have become locked up in the ocean floor of my mind. I recall meeting a man and his wife walking toward us as we set up the podium for a public meeting in Django Town in northern Mon Repos.
A group of us was sharing out AFC hand-bands. I gave him two bands and remarked on how dirty and dark was Django Town. He said that when Guyanese go outside, what they see stops them from coming back. I sense he was a labourer but his analysis was spot on.
We lose thousands of young would-be geniuses every year because the internet pulls them away from Guyana. Just one look at the outside world and they dismiss the land of their birth as primitive and useless. I have seen and learnt a lot from my involvement in the 2015 election campaign for the APNU-AFC coalition.
I always thought that Guyana was un-modern and terribly backward, and in each Independence Day column stretching back to my columnist career at the Catholic Standard and Stabroek News, I wrote about Guyana’s primitive state but the 2015 election campaign was a deep, learning experience.
We left Black Bush Polder late that night and on that endless stretch of Corentyne road, it was primitive madness. There was not one street light lamp. How can the only roadway, the Linden Highway that links Region Four with Regions Nine and Ten not have even one street lamp? Look at the economic importance of that linkage yet the Linden highway at night time, travel is a journey into complete darkness. All of this is happening as we move closer to celebrating fifty years of Independence, one year from now. Where did fifty years go?

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We are nearing that magical number of fifty

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