Jagdeo, President Granger step aside, allow neutral leaders to solve crisis

Jul 16, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Our nation today stares into the future with uncertain angst, and when we look into the root cause of this sad situation, we see three fundamental causes, bitter, toxic roots that anchor the body politic in choking weeds of discouragement, downcast hope, and a dreadful lack of cooperation.
This concept of cooperation, were we to embrace it as enshrined in the very sanctity of our nationhood as the world’s – and history’s in fact, only Cooperative Republic, we would see clearly the solution, the way out of this muddy quagmire that sucks us into a sinking mudbank.
Problem 1:
When we consider the fact that our Guyanese body politic remains, after 53 years of stumbling into its formation, unsophisticated, under-developed, and immature, we see the negative impact of that irritating donkey bit in the mouth of the body politic, steering us into whatever direction that fancies the one wielding the reins: personality politics. Both in the Opposition and Government, personalities set themselves up as larger than the nation, as bigger than everybody else, as more important than even good sense.
Thus, today, the nation faces a monumental crisis that revolves around the personalities of Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and President David Granger. The two lack what we declared we’re about as a people: cooperation.
Problem 2:
Ego and self-aggrandizing and self-importance seem to drive these personalities to such an extent that good sense, selfless sacrifice, and giving up their power positions, in their own self-image, could not be a possibility. Such an idea – to step back and retreat and exit the stage in the interest of the national well-being, may be to them unthinkable. So nobody dares raise such a possibility.
Problem 3:
With alacrity and grave short-sightedness, the nation pushed back with an immense inferiority complex, any notion that the Diaspora or overseas Guyanese could play a constructive role in national affairs going forward. After the No-Confidence Motion and the ruling of the Judiciary that dual citizens got no call to play politics in Parliament, the zeal locally for Diaspora engagement faded. So the local environment functions with scant regard to any possibility that blindspots could cloud the clear vision of those close to the battlefield, and a far-away concerned Guyanese may see what’s hidden from those up close.
Editor, given these three problems that are root causes for why we’re where we’re at today, here are three possible solutions:
Solution 1:
Both the Opposition Leader and the President could sign an Agreement agreeing to step out of the fray, and hand the affairs of choosing a Chairman for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), and of holding national and regional elections, to a neutral team of interested and concerned persons. This dissolves the connotations and emotional hangups of both sides in the current crisis, freeing up cleared emotional and semantic space for rational resolutions. Both the Opposition Leader and the Government harbour serious doubts, suspicions, fears, accusations, dread, and a whole host of other toxic emotions, towards the other. Thus, a solution becomes impossible. Hence, a new modus operandi seems imperative.
Solution 2:
What a magnanimous gesture of selfless love for the nation would he demonstrate were the Opposition Leader to step aside, totally out of the limelight, and retreat into the background, in the interest of dissolving all the negative emotions, suspicions, doubts, connotations, built-up angst and anger and animosity from his leadership style over the years. The Opposition Leader falls into the den of a host of important national enemies, including a wide range of media operatives, from the national daily newspaper Kaieteur News and influential TV station CNS Channel 6, to news websites and radio personalities, and scores of important national Journalists.
The Opposition Leader generated a number of enemies within his own Party, and within the broader political landscape, including deep hatred for him within the Alliance For Change, Working People’s Alliance, and People’s National Congress. Him stepping off the stage would erase these knee-jerk emotional reactions against the Opposition and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.
Along with him stepping away, his singular pick for the Presidential Candidate of the PPPC, Mr Irfaan Ali, should also exit the stage, freeing up space for a less controversial figure to step forward in the interest of generating national engagement, cooperation, and mutual respect. Irfaan Ali’s controversies in some quarters in the country, because of his leadership of the PPPC Government’s housing and land sector, generates too much suspicions, toxic emotive reactions, and negative vibes – in the minds of key leaders who influence and direct national affairs.
A team comprising Dr Frank Anthony, Samuel Hinds, Anil Nandlall, former President Donald Ramotar, Gail Teixeira, Bibi Shadick, Carolyn Rodrigues, and Juan Edghill should represent the PPPC and engage the Government, instead of Mr Jagdeo and Mr Ali.
Solution 3:
The Government should invite a cadre of Diaspora Guyanese concerned and interested in the nation’s welfare to play a mediating role between the two sides. This Diaspora team would also comprise local civic leaders from business, academia, and the media.
Our nation now stoops low amidst a swirling stinky political angst, bowed under the weight of a deep constitutional crisis, and one feels that the solution resides in a strong citizen and diaspora engagement to solve the evolving impasse embroiling the Coalition, the Opposition, and the citizenry of Guyana in a cauldron of uncertainty and inflammatory politics in the face of the impending oil economy. In this fiery cauldron that seethes under the sun of the Guyanese nation, we cannot again – like in the 1960’s, hang on to personality politics and allow the future of the Guyanese nation to sink further into a rotting mudbank.
In the ’60’s and ’70’s the nation faced a great future, with bauxite promising to make us a global success story. Alas, we messed it up. Today, we face a great future again, with oil promising us a global success story. Are we staring into a default future, just repeating history? We could change course were we to rid our national corridors of these personalities who, for whatever reason, generate so much toxic emotions in so many citizens and spokespersons and commentators who influence national opinion.
Let’s clear the slate of all negative emotive connotations that reside in the symbol of our well-known national figures, and inject new, fresh faces and voices, new symbols of power and leadership and politics.
This way, our way of being as a unique nation on the world stage, being a people of cooperation, could stand a chance of winning. It’s now urgent time for both President Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to give up their reins and entrust the nation’s future to new interim symbols of power and politics.
Sincerely
Shaun Michael Samaroo

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