Groping for some sanity

Jul 21, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I stay with what I believe offers a way out of our ugly political impasses. Shared governance, it is called. It is certain to incur more hostility and scorn, which is enough to encourage continuing along the path chosen, while groping for sanity.
Shared governance. How do I see it? It is comprehensive political and civil inclusion in managing all vital areas of governance: the economy, oil integrity, major institutions, and civilian and national security, among numerous others. It should not include the two political majors, but there is no ridding of them. Against all that I stand for, they have to be counted, with inclusive extending (significantly) to other crucial groups in society; religious, media, and professional estates are some. Cumbersome certainly, but otherwise we have nothing, but the promise of good conduct, good practices, and good results, with nothing remotely resembling such.
We would need expert guidance on the formation and implementation of the organs for democratic management at different levels. Since upwards of 85% of our higher educated base migrate, what we have left is mainly the riffraff that relishes squabbling and cursing, while getting nowhere. Which country can get anything done, succeed to any degree, with a 15% intellectual residue? And when it is almost equally divided along racial political lines? That reduces to a struggling 7% when governing, and with a critical and sabotaging 7% arrayed against in opposition and confusion. In truth, it is the confusion that ties in knots over who is better and fitter to govern.
Some learned men-professors and authorities-think of matters from academic angles, including political science (democracy), economics (distribution), statistics (demographics) and so forth. The religious see it as a curse from above. The foreigners view it as a paradox that ruffles their drawing boards. And the vast local criminal class recognizes it as tailored made for moneymaking. All have truth.
For myself, I reduce governance to the kernel: it is a ‘coolie and black’ issue. All problems, all controversies, all impasses distill to that irreversible reality. Who should, and who should not… also, who sacrificed more, who came later, (and who squandered more). That is the sum of the sophistication and simplicity of Guyana’s sociology. It is what everybody knows, but none own up to and do something. We comfort ourselves with lies. I tell the first one: we are only this way around elections season; such convenient falsifications should be a capital crime. The truth is that – regardless of haves and have-nots, slavery and indentureship, democracy and clean governance, backward and bright citizens – what we have is a ‘coolie and black’ epidemic of national proportions. We may pretend and wish otherwise, but there it is.
Editor, some questions are timely. After the race wars ingrained in elections proceed somewhere beyond tomorrow, how do we face each other in parliament? How do we stand each other? How do we trust any other from anywhere at any time on anything? How do we overcome the hatreds that hurt so much? Johnnie Walker (pick a colour) may induce the blessed relief of momentary forgetfulness, but reality returns.
Is the Leader of the Opposition embraceable, when on his hands many wrongs are deposited, including over a thousand deaths (literal) and a thousand other cuts? Is the president to be regarded with warmth after his own death dealing (electoral) exploits involving well over 100,000 votes? Supporters have been assured and reassured that they have won. How do they deal tranquilly and contentedly with losing? Remember the numbers of this coolie and black problem: it is not 90/10 or 80/20 or even 60/40, however counted. Remember this: no viable center exists as buffer.
Stepping overseas, my fellow Americans were invited to hold our hands and prevent us from tearing out each other’s liver. Now I understand that their hands are sullied: they wanted a military base here but were rebuffed. Something decays in Guyana’s Denmark. Everything I have shared about trusting powers and principalities (vital strategic interests -Vladimir -are your people listening) take on a different light, including sanctions and partnering when other politicos make promises. I call it bartering among brigands under labels of democracy and clean elections.
Whatever it is, at the end of it, we still have this ‘coolie and black’ problem that is fixed through inclusive governance. Inclusive is the temporary cushion.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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