Independence Day – Celebrating a broken cistern

May 27, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
What is there to celebrate after 53 years of independence? We often hoist our flag, even in remote areas, recite the National Pledge, sing the National Anthem and patriotic songs on the 26th May each year in reverence and to acknowledge what the generation of 1966 felt was a liberation that was sure to herald an era of peace, prosperity and goodwill among the citizens.
This independence, we were told by the political elite of 1966, would give us dominion over everything Guyana possessed and no longer will our resources be plundered by the imperialist. After 53 years on what seems like a downward trajectory from what was expected, the present generation has lost the will to reminisce or contemplate on the economic status quo that existed prior to Independence, relative to where we are today.
May 26th has been reduced to a day for a poorly attended and meaningless Guyanese ritual, where the President or members of the ruling elite try to convince the nation or rather those who care to listen, that we as a nation had made great strides over those 50 odd years. All utter trash! All in consonance to reaffirm our belief that Independence was the best thing that ever happened to Guyana.
The yearly ceremony is done for the propagation and justification of the political class that ruled over the people for those 50 odd years. Independence brought about the enrichment of the political class while the fortunes of the poor drifted further south. Where is the inspiration for patriotism?
The general consensus of measuring progress or lack thereof on a societal scale is by going back to the past. By 1960, our rate of exchange was below G$20 = 1 US$. We were touted as the ‘Bread basket of the Caribbean’. We had boasted the highest GDP per capita for the Caribbean. Trade unionism was at its apex. The working class was well represented. Fifty three years after, with unemployment and under-employment so prevalent, we are being induced to believe that a Ministry of Labour is a luxury the state cannot afford.
We were on the road to great things, but we became collateral damage to the Anglo/American Empire in the war of ideologies, even before independence was handed to us. Communism reared its head in the Caribbean, too close for comfort for the Americans when the Batista regime was overthrown by communist Castro in 1959. It resulted in the birth of “manifest destiny’ in American foreign policy. “Manifest Destiny” dictated that another communist government was not going to come to power in the Western Hemisphere.
I am going to say something that will annoy a lot of people, but I don’t give a damn! Our history must be told to our young people not only in a contemplative manner, it must also be told in a speculative manner. “What if”? Should be the focus point to determine how, where and why we ended up the way we are. Historically! The world has always been in a mode of conquest and captivity. Every superpower from, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greek, Romans, way past the British Empire that had brought our fore parents here, had sought to conquer and control as much of the known world in their respective era. As crude and cruel this thesis may look, it cannot be refuted. It was, simply put, the ways of the world. It didn’t require rocket science to depict the dominant power of the 1960’s. All it required was a little historical perspective. The year 1960 was just 15 years after the greatest attempt at World conquest (World War II). One had to be a fool to imagine the world could have beaten its,” swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks” in such a short time- upsetting a trend that goes back for thousands of years. For premier Jagan in British Guyana to be openly associated with communist Russia was courting danger, in the face of manifest destiny. The result was inevitable, they (America) got rid of Jagan by “covert action”, which was the new mode to achieve domination, replacing conquest and captivity. Jagan’s demise became Guyana’s demise. Jagan’s demise resulted from his lack of historical perspective and his belief that he “ knows everything about anything” as asserted by Dr. Ralph Gonzalves at his 2015 lecture. This is where contemplative history comes alive! What if Jagan had not chosen the communist path? I leave you the reader to think of the possibilities! How and why our progress was railroaded? Contemporary history has contemplatively identified the present universal status of democracy to one battle, the victory by the Greeks over the Persians in the battle of Thermopylae 490 BC. The faster we as a nation can contemplatively identify how and why our independence was presented as a broken vase, the quicker we can seek redress.
The methodology of this covert action sowed the seed of discord among the nation by further polarising the two major races. Fifty six years later, the political class have not lift a plausible finger to attempt to exorcise the demon of racism cast upon us because our leader had a communist proclivity. All the rigged elections were just American foreign policy, which dictates that a dictator is preferred to a communist at work. We were relegated to the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Our people were forced to scamper to all parts of the globe in search of a better life.
Now we have gone 360 degrees, from driving the capitalist away to inviting them to “ plunder our resources”, luring them with tax concessions and sweetheart contracts, in the name of being independent- the very reason we were willing to drive them away 53 years ago. Is this the independence we should be proud of? While the majority of our population is severely poor and continues to mire in poverty. The Anglo/American Empire made sure they gave us a broken cistern for independence. A cistern so broken that for 53 years we can’t begin to piece it together. A cistern the people may have done well without.
Rudolph Singh

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