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KEEPING THE FOCUS
Dear Editor,
I listened to an international preacher giving his rendition of the Christmas Story. As he expounded on the plight of Joseph finding his espoused bride to be pregnant, the preacher uttered the words “this is not the Christmas he (Joseph) was looking for”.
I could not help but think that this was a prophetic description of our dear nation of Guyana as we enter the holidays with the unsettling reality of a political landscape that is far from delivering the stability, confidence and pathway to growth that we had hoped for.
Yes, by now it is obvious that the main focus of my discourse is the current political main story – “No confidence vote passed; elections to be held in three months.” Like many Guyanese I felt the pangs of betrayal, the terror of an uncertain future and the disgust of yet more drama; not getting it together for such long time; a nation not moving on; continuous unrest.
For me these discomfiting feelings are fuelled by a bit more: the fact that our young people are not getting a chance to witness any real progressive political strategy and are maturing in an era where there is a paucity of true examples of statesmanship, freedom fighters and commitment to a greater cause.
Further, I shudder at the thought that what is being demanded of us at this time is beyond our natural ability to comply. First, an election to be planned at a time when there is no real voice from the incumbent president and leader of the coalition, and an elections commission chairman who is away on indefinite sick leave.
Moreover, this is compounded by the fact that there are unrelenting elements that seek to capitalize on both the self-inflicted and calamitous wounds of the coalition to destabilize, infiltrate and return the nation to a dark era.
Nonetheless, as a nation and a people, we have a choice to make. A choice between lamenting and acting; a choice between sinking in despair or arising in the hope of a better day – that we could secure a better day.
For some there is a greater choice – that of whether to be complicit and seek your own good or whether to garner some steel and back bone and decide to create a better tomorrow for your children and grandchildren.
Make no mistake, there will be further dealing and wheeling, there will be more temptations to accept the offerings of the enemies of our nation’s good and protect self-interest. I take this opportunity to sound a call for all Guyanese to reject the attempts to purchase our souls.
I ask us to remember the mysterious execution style killings that riddled the front pages of our newspapers every day; the raping and leaching of this country’s wealth whilst sick people just had to make a decision to die for lack of availability of the appropriate interventions at affordable prices and while our children remained in learning institutions with backward methodologies for lack of the technological modalities which will prepare them for the century in which they live.
I urge you fellow citizens to remember the scourge of international embarrassment as senior officials had visas revoked and clouds of corruption wrapped all around them on the global stage.
We face an election in 90 days, indeed three months. At a time where our souls are weary and the temptation is to just let IT be – whatever IT is. Then there is the temptation to seek revenge on those members of the coalition who hurt us – after we campaigned and turned out the votes in our numbers, then we were wrongfully dismissed, insulted, denied access and the list can go on.
But I urge that we remain focused. There is a greater enemy lurking. There is an enemy that seeks to establish here in our beautiful Guyana, a base of corruption that will create a class system that divides the ‘haves’ and ‘haves not’ by a gulf too wide to imagine; an enemy that intends to leach our Guyana until it is dry of every drop of water and oil; an enemy that seeks no good for this country.
Let not the light afflictions we may have suffered under the ill thinking members and operatives of the coalition cloud our vision of what is at stake but let us find within us the energy to make change – if not in time for you and me (like the Christmas song says) then certainly in time for the generations to come that rely so heavily upon us.
Anonymous
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