Successive generations of leadership have failed our youth

Nov 29, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

---

 

I was on a link-up with an Antiguan radio station last Sunday. I can’t remember the name of the young female politician from Antigua, but the other panelist was Dr. David Hinds. The Antiguan lady feels one of the ways to fashion a new horizon in the Caribbean; to finally do away with aging rulers who do not want to ride away, is to fashion a political culture for the youths of the Caribbean.
David and I disagreed with her optimism on youth. David felt that Caribbean youths were totally disappointing, while I took the position that Guyana probably has the most backward youthful generation in the entire world. The Antiguan woman then put a question to me. She asked if the reason for the failure of Caribbean youth lies in the failure of the older leadership to set the standards and the examples (my words). She was absolutely right.
One of the enduring characteristics of civilization since time immemorial is the role of leadership on humans. Younger people are more susceptible to the charisma and rhetoric of leaders. Socrates was charged with corrupting youth. The Athenian leadership felt he had undue influence on the youths and rebellion was inevitable, so they charged him with treason and put him to death.
Marc Anthony in particular had a strong bond with young Roman soldiers. From Socrates right up to Obama, youths have been the key to changing society. Obama won his first term because young White Americans defected from liberal traditions and voted with Black Americans, Hispanics and women for a non-traditional presidential candidate. There can be no doubt that had White youths not voted for Obama, he could not have won. Obama appealed to them. But he would have lost a second term if he did not stay on course. This is where setting the standards and the examples come in.
When leaders come to power and they are maverick in style, iconoclastic in thinking, radical in policy-making and humanist in the dispensation of justice, they attract and preserve a value that inheres in civilization – the idealism of youth. Until civilization comes to an end, the rebellion of youth will never disappear. Humans in general have a sense of justice, but older folks tend to mellow (I hope I haven’t) but youths will never be tired of revolting against injustice. Which revolution from the Athenian city-states to the Arab Spring succeeded without the emotions of youth?
When leaders fail to set up themselves as pillars of righteousness to be emulated, they will not galvanize their young populations. I cannot speak for the Caribbean in general, but I have lived in Guyana all my life, where my occupation has been the study of people, events and society in general. Successive generations in this land have failed to inspire youths since the colonials left. There was no question, the generation of Cheddi and Janet Jagan, Eusi Kwayana, Martin Carter, Jai Narine Singh, Forbes Burnham, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow and their colleagues had a huge spell over the young in British Guiana.
When power came to them and their parties, true colours replaced charisma and humanism. Neither Jagan nor Burnham in power set himself up as a standard bearer. The post-Independence politicians and their parties faulted so badly that Walter Rodney was able to wave a magical wand around young Guyanese. I lived through the Walter Rodney era and I was young then, and I saw for myself the role leaders can play in capturing the minds of youth. Rodney captured my mind and countless others like me.
Burnham died and we had Hoyte, the return of Cheddi Jagan, his wife as president and we have passed through Jagdeo, Ramotar and Granger, with an evergreen Moses Nagamootoo not far behind. But none of them have inspired our youths. In the words of the Antiguan panelist, those leaders have failed the Caribbean young.
In Guyana they have. I cannot honestly say that the Granger/Nagamootoo combination is attractive politics. That combination is not only poor politics, but it leads to a cul-de-sac of pessimism.
Our politics have been devastatingly uninspiring, our political culture has been dangerously intimidating, our power display has been traditionally authoritarian, and the result has been the destruction of the nation’s psyche. I don’t think other Caribbean countries have experienced this permanent nightmare, which may explain why the lady panelist was so optimistic about Antiguan youth.
I will keep writing about it and being unapologetic in so doing, and that is, I do not believe there is a university student population in any other country that is so scared, reticent and apathetic as UG’s.

---

---