Tomorrow’s elections

Mar 01, 2020 Editorial

We at this publication do not favour anyone or make any judgment. Hence, we make no endorsement of any political group as the nation prepares for tomorrow. Our position is, unfortunately, compelled by the record and still unalterable mindsets of Guyanese leaders and groups, as they gird for tomorrow’s electoral contest.
They do not bring appealing or any deep-seated stirring, and none more so than the two big ones; particularly, the two senior ones.
For us at this outspoken journalistic institution of the people, this would rise to the equivalent of abandoning and betraying what we have stood for and struggled for, what we had hoped would be the sensitising and maturing of brother and sister citizens after the punishing, devastating lessons of the last three score years, of our entire lifetime, it seems.
It is where we stand. We wish that we could step forward enthusiastically and say otherwise, but we can’t. It is the length of the road that our conscience allows us to travel.
On the other hand, what we do ask today of eligible citizens is that they turnout tomorrow and vote, which is among the first principles and provisions of the democratic process. It is still not perfected at this point, but we press: go out and cast the ballot for the party of choice, with the clear visions that come from a clear head.
The second encouragement–a demand, really–is that any such individual exercising of the franchise must be freely done and allowed to be accounted for fairly. This is regardless of speculation, of location, of passion, or of inclination as to who is going to be for whom.
This is what is due to the process that makes it credible, which empowers–at individual level, at group level, and at leadership level–to be acceptable. Let us all contribute to a process that stands and falls on the merits and which makes us proud.
So, our hand and voice are raised in that simplest of universal gestures: let peace prevail. Let understanding and goodwill prevail. We need it, we could use it, and we must have it, and never more urgently than at this hour.
History and memory have left us with the scars to show for the errors of our enduring electoral ways, the lasting anguish and animosities generated. These blind us and deafen us to any other element, any different essence, and leave us worse for wear and the most piteous of creatures and countries.
Let us not continue in the same mechanical, mindless, indifferent ways.
It is why we advocate energetically and strongly: let us recognise that we cannot go on in this way, except in shreds of what should be a society, with the poisons that do nothing but destroy us further. Surely, we have more good sense than this.
Surely, we should be wise enough to comprehend that we cannot go on like this; we cannot go anywhere upwards, even the small blessing of functioning sideways looks out of reach. We say that this cannot be what we want at this time in the life of our country.
We say that before we touch one dollar, one cent, of that oil, we have to commit to getting our house in order, which starts with ourselves.
The international community, the overseas originated plenipotentiaries, can only go so far, say so much, do so little within the confines and dictates of diplomatic restraints. They will help, but the bulk of lifting and carrying and hard upward journeying has to be and must be done by us.
Tomorrow can be watershed or woodshed. The former could take us to places never been before, while the latter is merely another step to those points of no return. For too long we have been forced to look up to find the bottom.
After such a long while at visiting and revisiting the woodshed, as a nation, we may have forgotten our way up from the bottom of it, out of it and back to some semblance of a dignified starting point. In the simplest, yet frankest, if not harshest of terms: we have lost our way, and along the way we have willingly lost our minds, if not our souls, too.
This is where we are now, regardless of who says otherwise, who trumpet that they represent the perfection of the extraordinary and the unprecedented, indeed, the alpha and omega of singular national promise.
The interwoven questions are these: to whom and in which places and for what purposes and for how long? Elections Day 2020 is our first challenge; all the other pungent and piercing ones that hastened us and hurled us to this fateful point fade into the ether of the immaterial and inconsequential.
This is it; this is where we must gird our ambitions and the visions that come from them to rise up and stand up for what is the best in the democratic traditions, for the hopeful citizens of this enfeebled country, now standing on the brink of something, whether it is the way up or the precipice that takes us further down.
Let us, therefore, go forth as the most responsible of peoples to do our duty, to do so rightly and honourably, and to do our best to contribute to what carries this country above its emotions and clashes, its confrontations and its continually clouded future.
May a special light shine on us tomorrow and then beyond. Elections peace and progress to all!