A unified Guyana is the only way to counter the divisions and exploitations of those from afar

Nov 18, 2021 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – The letter published in Kaieteur News of November 16, 2021, titled “Gross incompetence by the PPP/C Government has robbed Guyanese of billions” written by Leyland Chitlall Roopnarine is instructive.
Coupled with today’s Kaieteur News Editorial, I am of the firm view that the wisdom and information contained therein ought to constitute a clarion call to every sane, sensible and concerned Guyanese for immediate action of varying types to arrest this dangerous destructive drift. For one who has been in the hustings for almost seven decades, I agree with the comments of Mr. Roopnarine with the exception of his identifying National Service as a waste.
The one exception is National Service. National Service, if continued with appropriate adjustments, would have been taken to a high plateau to fulfil the hopes of our slave and indentured forbearers and the expectations of the present generation. G.N.S (Guyana National Service) was moving towards the fulfillment of our statement to become One Nation with One people with One Destiny.
National Service as designed catered for all levels of our society. Those who missed educational and other opportunities, and those who reached the tertiary level. It was designed so that each of those groups shared the same space learning from each other. I have seen National Service help youngsters from the North-West to the Corentyne, from the coastlands to the hinterlands and border communities to play, eat and work together, thus erasing the prejudices and misconceptions that have, until now, divided and weakened our society.
I have spoken to people of every race and religious group, and they have all admitted that National Service helped them to see the ‘other person’ in a kind and illuminating light. Had National Service not been stopped, we would have produced more astute and truly nationalistic leaders among the membership of all of our political parties.
With reference to the burning current concern, about how little we are obtaining from the bounty of oil given to us by the Creator, I have urged and continue to urge, that until and unless the leadership of this Government and the Opposition learn more of our history and understand the awesome power of a tried and successful imperialist divide to rule policy, we will continue to receive the crumbs falling from the Master’s table.
I plead with Guyanese, particularly the younger generation, to apply pressure on their political parties and social organisations to set aside this pettiness and puerile behaviour. To sit down like the proverbial Knights at the Round Table and workout a common approach to deal with the oil giants and those who are exploiting our other natural resources. To let those from far-off know that on the issue of the exploitation of our natural resources, that whichever Government or President forms the Guyana Government, that on this question, as a result of the discussions above, that Government will speak on behalf of the ninety-nine percent of Guyanese and not thirty-nine, forty-nine or fifty-nine percent. This will be a telling blow to divide and rule.
Divide and Rule has been the curse for this country for too long. I urge leaders of my own Party and others to sit and talk, so that the giants would recognise that Guyana is not for sale because our political leaders showed unity of purpose, when it comes to the people of Guyana benefiting in a big way from our natural resources.
Sometime ago, I suggested that Ministers should have on the front office door and conference room, a large sign saying, “not for sale.”
To the Guyanese public, at home and abroad, and particular our youngsters, I urge you in your groups to protest this rape of our patrimony.
May I remind all and sundry that the 16th President of the great United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, who agonised about the split between the North and South over slavery, stated “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” Let not history judge Guyanese, who now have access to Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, the Media, and modern communication technology, as cowards.
Much later, during my lifetime, I heard Martin Luther King (Jnr) remind the world, and this applies to Guyana today, that “we live in the culture of cowardly silence – avoiding society where “getting along by going along” is the way of life. In this culture of silence, we tend to be mute on critical issues or conditions, until our personal self-interests are threatened, or until it is too late.” Those words fit easily into our situation in Guyana today.
Guyanese, I urge you to let those who wish to exploit us, that on this issue, irrespective of who you are, we will be one, so that our children and our children’s children will not be ashamed of us in our graves.

Hamilton Green
Elder

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