Diaspora done differently

May 21, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I noticed that the diaspora is back in the news. In view of it’s on again and off again presence in the priorities of this country’s politicians, I categorise like elections manifestoes, clean governance and ethical leadership: nice on paper, but disconnected from reality. Nonetheless, I present a different outlook on how the Guyanese diaspora should be, what the role of government is and where to proceed from there.
I start with the personal. Always harbour the dream of returning, giving. Those should be the first clues: wanting to return and on own terms. Giving a little here making a little difference there; in one’s life, perhaps, one place, maybe; aggregates of higher ground. It cannot be coming to make money. If that is so, then what was done and realised after all those decades in the rat race? Why the need for government? Why special treatment, other than the general duty-free concession for ordinary re-migrants? How different is diaspora then from the foreign predators now hailing Guyana as the place to be? Is it not just more damn carpetbaggers positioning themselves for a government handout (job, contract, land, and so on)? What happens if there is no oil? There was none when I, a member of the diaspora, came back and shared.
Editor, this is what I encourage of those who say they love Guyana, and really want to do something to lift this place up out from the gutter in which it is hopelessly mired. A vibrant diaspora presence in the domestic realm-investment, special expertise, the broadest cultural and personal heights-could contribute to the genuine ‘Third Force’ that we yearn for as difference-makers and change agents; perhaps bridge builders and reconcilers. For when this is done, then what is manifested, is that there was learning and growing. That is, even while there was earning of one’s way to that place of self-sufficiency. It is that the diaspora operates at a different standard, because of different ethics and a higher sense of honour. Technically, professionally, and financially there is need and use for diaspora presences. But I would hate to think that to overseas Guyanese, this country is just another predator’s ball.
Then, if all this newest noise about the diaspora and its ingathering is about rewarding financiers and those who gave moral support, just do it and move along. If diaspora members come back because of what was and is expected from the PNC then, and the PPP now, all that is accomplished is an expansion of the rancid partisanship that tears this society apart, continue that, too. In other words, more of the favoured and haves, as against, more of the expectant marginalised and disappointed have-nots. For sure, government should be there with program and structure, but those cannot be opportunities for more filtering and excluding (euphemism), more of bias and politics, as opposed to what is of country and constructive.
To repeat, diaspora Guyanese should come. But equipped and on their terms.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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