Guyana desperately needs a vibrant centre

May 23, 2021 Editorial

A few Guyanese have acknowledged that we need a vibrant state, but there has been a lack of the required sincerity and will to get around to doing something about what hurts us. For their part, more and more Americans have recognised where matters stand firmly rooted, and they are calling for something to be done, with others hearing the cry, and stepping forward to share in the responsibility. It is that a strong middle ground is needed as a counter and buffer to the increasingly disruptive and divisive political chaos that has become the settled norm. A middle that makes a difference, a middle that is expansive in outlook and embracing in inclusiveness. In the United States, and this should not be surprising given where things are under the endless acrimonies of the two major political parties, the largest and fastest-growing bloc of voters are those who do not identify themselves as Democrats or Republicans. That is but one indication of how bad things have deteriorated under the guiding hand of one or those two dominant political groups. And that non-identification and distancing from both is a measure of the deep disgust that prevails in growing sections of America. Much of this is expressed in an excerpt of The Centrist Manifesto by Charles Wheelan, published on the website, Medium in January 2017 under the title, “America needs a Centrist Party Now More than Ever. Here is how to make it happen.”
Nothing of the kind is happening here. Citizens profess to be angry and disappointed with the costly corruptions of politicians and public servants. They claim to be highly unhappy with how they are being used and misused for cheap political advantage Yet, over and over again, those same agitated presences and noisy voices, when acting in their capacity as voters turn right around and cast their ballots for the same political figures and groups that betray them, trick them, and impoverish them.
We say we are all for change, the positives that come from a vibrant middle, but we are too fanatically fixed to the racial political poles at the extremes to summon the strength and courage to separate from them. We are thunder and turbulence during election intervals, but during elections seasons, we resort to form – racial form, all too effortlessly and make utter fools of ourselves and in the sorry existences with which we live afterwards.
Guyanese are not open to new ideas. These have little time or patience for the likes of someone such as Victor Hugo, who once said that nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. In Washington, that idea has crystalised in the presence of over a hundred members of what is called the Progressive Caucus in the new Congress. Among the group’s priority proposals are Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, and a Green New Deal. Win, lose, or draw, those hard-to-succeed projects will increase the visibility and stature of the new members of Congress.
As we reflect on this, we cannot help but ask where are the political people in Guyana that are for the people? Where are those who put the interests of the people before their own? Where are those who can genuinely be about leading us – citizens and supporters and voters – away from the far apart pits that the politicians dug for us, and into which so many faithful followers plunge with relish?
But even as we table those questions, all blame should not be placed on the heads of our prejudiced political participants, mainly leaders. Much of this also belongs with citizens-educated, younger, and wise to the ways of the world – who refuse to budge from the racial and political identification that have been the badges of honour worn by their fathers and grandfathers.
They like the poisons and passions of the perimeter, they adore the cult leaders, and they will have nothing to do with moving to the centre or for what is progressive for this society, even for themselves sometimes. What we have is broken; it is not working. It needs to be replaced and not in a hundred years from now, but today.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News