Restarting and rehabilitating

Jun 17, 2020 Editorial

---

In a truly democratic society, one that is devoted to statehood and nation building, elections are followed by gracious conceding and congratulating from those who fall short to those who prepare to ascend to the corridors of governance. Will this be the case later today here in Guyana, a land that aspires to the ideals of democracy and the kind of governance that is an inherent aspect of such? In other societies, undemocratic rogue nations, there are the clashing controversies and conflicts that initiate a long downward spiral in hostile post-elections environments. Is this what is promised here in some form at some time to some degree?
As of the close of Tuesday June 16, we at this paper do not know what today Wednesday June 17 promises or, for that matter, any of the severely testing days that are beyond what should be this first day of a new beginning. And, how we need a new beginning! One that is fresh and filled with hope for all of our fellow citizens, including those with electoral disappointments and heavy personal anxieties. Elections disappointments must not, under any circumstances, deteriorate to the frustrations and political instigations that lead to the unthinkable, the unacceptable, and the unconstructive.
For we, this country Guyana, need to restart. We can restart by forcing ourselves – all of us – towards the readjustments that are so vital, so mandatory, if we are going to be reinvigorated as a nation. From restarting cleanly, we can propel ourselves to readjusting sensibly, in search of the surging reinvigorating so necessary at this particularly demanding time in our existence. Are we, as a society of diverse peoples so interested? Do we have it individually and collectively, and deep within, to roll up our sleeves, tighten our belts, and fix our minds, to commit to harvesting all of the promises that beckon ahead?
We at Kaieteur News believe that we do as a proud and hardworking people, and we say so today. However, to do so, we need peace, for from that peace comes the order and stability to regroup and restart for national purposes and national rewards. We have the raw gifts in abundance, and so much so that the greedy and rapacious and covetous cast longing eyes and watering mouths at our riches. Thus, we need each other to protect what we have, to cultivate what we have been endowed with, and to maximise the earnings that come from our gifts, and which rightly and fairly belongs to us Guyanese.
Any thinking and visions of clean restarting calls for the peace of mind that leads to the environmental and atmospheric peace so desperately needed, yearned for, at this unhappy and unsettled moment. We have been filled to flowing over with the hostile and hurtful, the hating that fosters more hating, which only drove deeper into the darkness of the underground. And this accrues to the delight and benefit of those near and far, whose eyes brighten when they calculate how much of Guyana is up for grabbing and exploiting. The hands that are grasping are many, the hearts still more that are measuring our land and its yields, while they busy themselves projecting our profits and counting how they capture the lion’s share of what is ours.
We need national peace to be so focused against what lurks, a wise political fraternity (fraternity, not enmity) to bring about the social ambience so compulsory, if only we are to give ourselves a chance to restarting and continuing as a nation of one people towards a single destiny. We ask one more time, can we be so disciplined, whether first or so close to that prize, to understand and appreciate what is involved, what could come? We hope so and look forward to things being so from a leadership level all the way down to the level where all of us have to coexist and live constructively and with hope in our hearts.
We agree that there is much discussion and debate (disagreement, too) that must be integral and immediate components of going forward to a better standard and place for us in this country. But we must restart first on the right footing and immediately. Thereafter, all the positions and contentions-as well as the necessary resolutions – about how to go about GECOM, what to do for a new constitution, when to converse about Truth and Reconciliation can and must follow with no less urgency and authenticity. Those are only some of the big-ticket areas and items mentioned now, since there are a million others of a similarly demanding nature, which we at KN have every intention of prioritizing and tabling right here on this page in the next few days and weeks.
As all will agree, be they ally or adversary, we as a nation have been transfixed on and consumed by elections for some 18 months now, since late in the evening of that fateful late December day in 2018 have been about elections only. We now need to move away in one piece and with one mind towards living again, which we can only do by taking the first determined and comprehensive steps to restarting. Our people need to go to work to earn and be restored to the places of personal self-esteem and dignity. Our businesses need to reopen so that the commerce of everyday life can be expanded and energized. Our churches need to reopen so that we can kneel and pray that we have gotten here, and that we will have the strength and the character to move forward together. That is the key: in the oneness of togetherness that comes from the peace that is fed by respect for process and result, respect for each other.
Guyana has delayed long enough in this endless and bitter struggle for elements of democracy. They are of the first elements only, with all the supporting architecture of mind and vision, of single-mindedness of purpose to usher in an era of stability and unity in this society still to come. We appreciate that it will be an uphill task, many grueling ones rolled into one, but it is time for us to get down to the business of building a nation. It is time to restart, starting from today through genuine national self-discovery.

---

---