ALL IS NOT WELL AFTER 50 YEARS

May 28, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

While Guyanese at home and in the diaspora have celebrated the country’s 50th Independence Anniversary, they must stay focused on the fundamental issues facing the country and not be side-tracked by the glamor and pageantry.
The primary issue that should concern them is that the current economic indicators suggest that the model on which the country’s post-Independence economy was built has now failed.
The Minister of Finance believes that all is well and that the economy is on the right track to achieve sustainable growth. However, neither the government nor the Minister has demonstrated to the people that they possess new ideas of how to rescue the country from its economic dilemma or how to improve the lives of the poor.
Since taking office, the economy and the plight of the poor have been the major areas of concern. From the very beginning of independence, the late Forbes Burnham dedicated himself to the development of the economy and to make the small man a real man. He had established a widely accepted social philosophy to achieve that goal and to strengthen the nation and give it a core fundamental social structure andidentity.
The jewel of this manifestation was free university education.
For some, free university education was a sound policy and it was assumed that the lives of many would improve only to realize that free education became dispensable under the PPP. The truth is, the governments of the post-independence era did not do enough to transform the old plantation economy into a modern one to meet the needs and aspirations of an independent nation.
While the attainment of independence is a great achievement, it did not undo much of the colonial habits. Rather, Guyana has become a post-colonial society in which colonialism continued to shape the country’s image and affairs. For Guyana to develop, its leaders will have to unyoke the chains of colonialism in many institutions and end the divisive two-party political system of governance bequeathed to the nation by Britain.
Indeed, the daunting spirit of colonialism that stalked the nation 50 years ago continues to stalk it today and has resulted in its under-development. It has not yet occurred to the political leaders that all they have done is to accept and fulfill what was designed for the nation by the colonisers. The country is still trapped in the colonial-type plantation economy and much of the fundamental colonial resource structures are still in place.
It goes without saying that Guyana remains a classic colony in that it imports food and other primary products and that the leaders did very little to build a manufacturing and industrial base. How can Guyana with such huge land mass import food?
The answer lies in the post-independence governments which have not truly unlocked the talents and potentialities of the people, embrace the concept of economic and human development and trust the people, not foreigners.
They have not moved the country forward or have committed to use its natural resources towards its development. And there still exists the anti-worker colonial mindset that continues to permit jaundiced sentiments and attitudes against the working class and the ability to make decisions and to be involved in governance.
The leaders have not corrected the deficiencies in the health and education structures. Infant mortality continues and the content of the colonial school curriculum is failing thousands of students. These are the some of the issues that the people should keep in mind as they celebrate the nation’s 50th Independence Anniversary.
It is time to build a new and better post-independent society in the 21st Century, because all is not well after 50 years of independence.

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ALL IS NOT WELL AFTER 50 YEARS

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