HAPPY EMANCIPATION, GUYANA!

Jul 31, 2016 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The Alliance for Change (AFC) seizes this opportunity to extend to every Guyanese of every ethnicity and culture a very Happy Emancipation!
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word ‘emancipate’ means “to free from restraint, control or power of another; especially to free from bondage”. It is a subject that has remained relevant from 1834 when the British and American Abolitionists finally succeeded in having this inhuman practice declared illegal, finished. Most, if not all, of the countries in the Caribbean were built on the backs of African slaves and indentured labourers from India, China, Portugal and other places around the world.
The evolution of Guyana from then to now is deeply stained by this paradigm, especially the fact that it was used by our colonists to sustain divisions among our people. The most distressing aspect of it all is the active continuation of these divisions into this 21st Century by our own people who have no other agenda but political gain. In this global village that we live in that is getting even smaller not by geography but by the power of internet connectivity, there is just no space, no time, no tolerance for the perpetuation of the myth that one race is superior to another.
The wisest words of wisdom on the subject came during a 1937 pre-independence speech delivered by Marcus Garvey, Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist and entrepreneur. He said, “We’re going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because, whilst others can free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.”
So powerful is that admonition that it has been immortalized by the late, great Bob Marley in the lyrics of “Redemption Song”. So powerful is this message that at least nine other internationally acclaimed British, American and Irish artistes have recorded covers. Among them are Sinead O’Connor, Johnny Cash and Chris Cornell.
This quote is also the bedrock of the AFC, established in 2005 as a movement to provoke and promote changed perceptions of the value of Guyanese nationhood, and to turn on its face the crude and utterly senseless racial divisions that have been pitting Guyanese people one against the other.
The AFC comprises Guyanese people of diverse ethnicities, ancestry, cultures and religions, people who possess an impressive range of professional talents and a strong will to contribute to the progress of this nation. The AFC has grown into the real change agent that Guyana so badly needs. The party has stayed true to its founding principles of equality, liberty of the spirit and mind which influence our approaches to the numerous administrative issues that we and our coalition partners confront everyday to ultimately transform our economy and international image.
The AFC was established as a ‘Third Force’ in the then two-party political model to put an end to the criminal waste of Guyanese talent; to halt the stagnation of national growth that was occasioned by these political divisions; to end the crass despotism that had characterized our lives over the last 2 decades; to discard the divisive, destructive and racially charged political gamesmanship that was destroying our people’s will to remain here to develop our country.
It is indisputable that larger numbers of Guyanese live outside our country than the in-country population. A very recent study posits that 93 percent of our graduates from the University of Guyana and other tertiary level institutions leave this beautiful land to follow their dreams. Other countries are now benefiting from the educational foundation that Guyana had laid.
Some migrants never returned, but the vast majority have stayed in contact or current with the status quo in their homeland. We know this because our growing register of members consists of people who live in other countries but they volunteer their time, intellect and resources to the AFC. We know this because, among the 27,000 who came home for the Golden Jubilee, there were many who were enthused by our obvious efforts to create a vibrant economy and society, but they let us know that there is still a long road to travel before Guyana could attract them back for good.
They helped to strengthen our resolve to end this debilitating brain drain. We have only just begun to revamp the education curricula from nursery to university while we prepare our people across our 83,000 square miles for internet connectivity.
President Granger’s New Year’s clarion call this past January resounds like a trumpet. This year of our Golden Jubilee, he said, will be Guyana’s Renaissance, the year that begins our steadfast march towards the creation of a Guyanese society and a Guyanese population that can walk pace-for-pace alongside the rest of the world.
This requires us to remove all encumbrances, especially the institutionalized misappropriation of the nation’s resources, and the entrenched fear of speaking up and speaking out against the wrongs we see being perpetuated, the wrongs that rob us of our entitlements. People still fear the reprisals that the previous government used to visit upon them. There is work for us to do in towns and villages to help our people to understand that they have a responsibility to hold this government accountable, and that the wrongs perpetuated against them by the PPP will not continue.
Simultaneously, the government is finding ways to side-step the efforts of the opposition to hold progress back. Their members are so accustomed to hoodwinking our people into believing that they are working in their best interest, that they have totally lost all sense of purpose. So they hide behind senseless shouting, truth twisting, outright untruths and enumerating the ‘actions’ the government should take to erase the damage that they did to our nation.
But they are failing. This administration exemplifies what a custodian of the people’s resources must do. The nation watched in horror the Opposition Leader’s address to a meeting of New York-based Guyanese during which he stated that Guyanese of Indian origin are ‘under assault’. This was rank race-baiting that has become his refuge because his arsenal is empty. He railed against the clean-up campaign that had begun spontaneously the day after the results of the May 2015 general elections were announced. Then he challenged the coalition government to find the funds and resources that were stolen under his leadership. We found some of those funds and resources, thanks to some fed-up Guyanese who’d had enough of their barefaced theft and disrespect. Jagdeo has been leading his followers into one rabbit hole or another and now he’s run out of options so he reverts to the old standard – race-baiting.
Hopefully Guyanese people, irrespective of our ancestry, will recognize soon enough that this man wants nothing else but to return to ‘power’ to continue where he left off. It would hardly work this time because our young people, the larger proportion of our population, are smarter and unconcerned about the PPP’s baggage. They have access to information and enlightened opinions.
Generally our youths are anxious to get on with their own lives, to establish business ventures and to network with like-minded youths around the world through the faster 4G network that is building in Guyana. They will soon have access to up-to-date skills training and post graduate programmes for ICT and the gamut of skills that will be required for our emerging oil and gas industry.
Guyana is on the way up to the place where we will truly be emancipated from mental and societal bondage.
HAPPY EMANCIPATION, GUYANA!

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