Americans did their part, Guyanese must also

Mar 04, 2022 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Kaieteur News- America ran to the rescue of Guyana and did its part. Though a good many Guyanese may think otherwise, Americans did work diligently both publicly and privately to introduce (or reintroduce) the fundamentals of change in this country. America gave Guyana democracy; or some of the aspects on which we must build. Citizens of America, the superpower, rolled up their sleeves and went to bat for Guyanese.

On the shoulders of the citizens of Guyana now rests the weighty responsibilities to take things from what was started and gifted. From the minds of Guyanese, the kind of thinking and visions they entertain would emerge the kind and quality of the society that come about, with which we will live or just manage to eke out an existence.

It must be said that the agents of America worked tirelessly first and foremost for American interests: Exxon’s first, geopolitical and strategic ones next. By the same measure, it is reasonable, even democratic, to inquire on what is most meaningful to Guyanese. It could be the ambitions of a few who grab successfully at levers of power, who hog all the prosperity, who enjoy all the rich bounty of this land. On the other hand, what may be of significance to most other citizens of this country is to go along to get along in some fashion.

If it has to be among the mass of impoverished in a place graced with countless endowments, then they shrug and move along. For it is the way that it has always been, and will continue to be, regardless of who says what, and whoever else does anything else. When there needs to be a fighting spirit across the widest cross section of the tricked and cheated Guyanese people, there is, instead, this great haste to take flight, and not stand up for what is their right. It is one of the defining hallmarks of democracy, one of its ideals, that the poorest of the poor also have what are rights.
They belong, they are due, they must be allowed to participate to the fullest in the fruits of progress and success. After all, it is their land, too, and their toil from the bottom up that seeds the soil with energy and ongoing dedication, that makes it grow. In contrast to the heavy influence of the favored few, the mighty, overpowering words of the handful who control messages and the minds of men, what counts are the dreams and aspirations of those without, those used and abused and left behind.
It is not the self-centered ambitions of cult leaders caught up and trapped in many addictions, of which the highest ones are taxpayers’ money, how to mislead them, so as to squeeze more out of them, and leave them more dependent and down in the depths of despair. In a democracy of spirit and strength, all things are possible, from the perverse to the pure. But the pure, or the better, or the higher, will not be achieved by complacency with circumstances, or by vulgarity at neighbour, or by insincerity of attitude.
Guyanese are going to have to take stock, sometime or the other, and determine how pleased (or displeased) they are with the place they occupy on the ladder of this rich country. They are going to have to decide how much more of the lies hung around their necks and to their faces they will absorb with indifference and resignation. In this newfound democracy, oil democracy, either they get off their knees, or risk being left behind forever. The oil Darwinism in motion in this country, for sure, will weed out the slow and the suckers who fall for the usual leadership slipperiness and sleaziness.
Americans in their own history, which rages down to this day, showed Guyanese that to get things done in the way envisioned, there must be getting up and going into action. Or else the world will pass by. Guyanese can swallow whatever government and opposition and private sectors leaders, even spiritual ones, stuff into their craw. Or they can grasp at the demands of democracy and get what is rightfully owed to each one of them.

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