A time for deep pondering

May 06, 2021 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – In some form or another and even much more so in recent times, quite a few of us have been uncomfortably near to what thrills a good segment of the population in this country. It goes something like this: ‘is we in charge now.’ Or ‘we have the power now.’ Or ‘we are in control now.’ So, get used to it. As much as we try to absorb that, there is no getting used to any of it, since such flies in the face of the devilishly torturous reality that is now an embedded part and parcel of this country. When we hear such statements laced with hauteur, we cannot help thinking and concluding that such are the follies of fools.
Even as the arrival of some of our ancestors was celebrated yesterday, the hard gut checks of domestic circumstances emphasise and re-emphasise that so much needs to be done to lift up this harshly divided society to some other state of mind, another place to which it doesn’t know (and doesn’t want to know) exists. If we are to get anywhere as a nation, as a viable society, then there has to be several realisations that come to the same place at the same time and blend in some manner.
For we are a land of many diverse peoples and cultures. Even Guyanese, who are not blessed with the ability to read and write and understand, appreciate that our demographics condemn us to a state of compromise to continue. Or continue in the failed manner that we have practiced and embraced and compromise any likely chances of progressing along a constructive national path. Since the numbers and percentages are largely well known, there is no reason to repeat them today, save to say a thing or two, if only to enlighten, maybe, even to soften where we stand sturdily on the respective sides of our hard divides. They are worth saying again.
Guyana is not a country like the Philippines or Singapore. It has many contributory citizen components, but they are all sucked into and overwhelmed by the overpowering numerical superiority of two troubled and tortured tribes. What to do about the other? How to exist prosperously without the other? How to plough ahead and get ahead without the inputs of the other that is seen as a threat and consigned to the margins of a shabby, unacceptable existence?
We table these unsparing thoughts and the surrounding questions that no one wants to hear. They are not going anywhere, but rebounding right in our faces and blinding us as to the futility of our wasteful efforts, our energies dissipated in disputing one another. Instead of arriving and the actual assimilations of arrival, what we have in this Guyana once beloved (still is, to some extent, if Guyanese can be believed) is departure. We depart from our senses. We depart from the richness of our prospects. We depart from the destiny that should and could be ours, when the best that we can do with our bonanzas is crow about ‘who is in power’ and ‘who is in charge.’ It goes without saying who is not, which means that many are left out and with nothing but their simmering resentments to take them through their day, which is not of any arriving, but of the desperation of losing.
It is the sum of the essences of local stupidities. We have arrived at the threshold of a new day with a vast new horizon in front of us, for us to command and own. But yet we allow our worst instincts to take the firmest hold of ourselves, shake us like a soggy dog, and drop us in a raggedy heap. It is one from which we are always working our way upwards, as we strive to get back to where we were before. This is how limited we are, and though we know full well that, while we are caught up in verbal wars and spiritual conflicts, those who come to help themselves to our gifts fetch away our rich prizes. Because we are so distracted, so senselessly occupied with a paltry and shaky supremacy.
We believe that we know better, which is why we recommend a better way to our fellow Guyanese, whether of Indian or African heritage, or that of native born or whose forbears were born elsewhere. And this is regardless of what was or was not celebrated yesterday. We also believe that our fellow citizens know that, regardless of who arrived first or second, there is only one nationally prospering Guyanese road to travel. It is the road of togetherness. That journey has not been started, and though it looks very dim now, we recommend that it be embarked upon going forward, if only to give us a chance to capitalise as a people. We do not think that there is a single Guyanese, no matter how obstinately partisan he or she may be, who is not aware that togetherness is the key to the future. Unity and togetherness are the passports that fling wide open all doors that pave the way for a truly national prosperity.

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