Guyana needs a Zelensky

Mar 07, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The world has a real-life hero, one so much unlike the comic book ones we have in Guyana. To find him, one doesn’t have to travel across the oceans. Simply open a newspaper or turn on a radio or television and there he is live and in colour.

He is definitely a picture of one embattled and in a state of grimness, but given the circumstances, which have been forced upon him and his besieged people, his appearance is to be expected. The world looks on and is inspired by Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. In so many aspects of his leadership he is the polar opposite of those that we have here masquerading as leaders, and this goes all the way to the top of the leadership pile right here in Guyana. Talk about leadership, courageous leadership, under relentless and withering fire, and there is none like Ukraine’s Zelensky.

He is a man waging a mighty uphill struggle, with the odds against his people, and he would not give-up, yield an inch through taking a backward step, doesn’t know the meaning of such words. His is a modern version of the ancient story of a puny David refusing to back down, and taking on, a hostile, aggressive, fearsome Goliath. According to Scripture, David had God on his side; according to the Western press, President Zelensky has many, if not most, Western nations in his corner. But any honest and frank appraisal of the evidence from a slew of fevered developments, bring the reasonable conclusion that the Ukrainian got the short end of the deal, when compared to the Israelite David. Yet he labours valiantly on for his people.
What about our leaders here in the PPP/C Government, for the most part, and the coalition opposition to a lesser extent? Where are they in this our peacetime and supposed time of prosperity? Why have they not declared some form of war against Exxon and its warrior band throttling the Guyanese people and their interests? Why have our leaders not found the wisdom and patriotism (like Zelensky), and the red-blooded guts also, to stand up to Exxon, which has declared the equivalent of economic war against the Guyanese? Why have they not drawn a line in the sand, and said not one barrel of oil more, not one more approval for any block or exploration project, not one more vessel of any kind coming here to disembowel us by taking the oil that is ours from the depths below our seas?
When we should have had leaders, we have been given limp-wristed and limp-lipped weaklings, who fear their shadows, who see Exxon’s ghosts in every nook and cranny that drive the fear of God into them. Because like Macbeth of Shakespearean glitter, they did wrong, by harbouring the worst of ambitions, which led to the most unpardonable of betrayals. They sold themselves for power, they compromised honour and principle for filthy lucre, and when they did so, they bound themselves to the fate with which they now must grapple and live, while putting up an alternately brave or bland front.
Take a look at the headman, the make-believe one. He is a striking picture of the man in literature who wanted to be king and would do anything for it. He reflects the paleness of a sickly presence, a slippery shadowy existence, while keeping up some forms of pretensive public appearances. Even his words are garbled, the sound of a man who has gored the hopes of his people, but one who chokes on their blood. Take a look also, at the other leader, who like Lady Macbeth would do anything to anyone to get what he wants. She did and she was the real power behind the throne, which is precisely what we have here in Guyana. We need a Zelensky-like figure to stand up and get in the faces of Exxon’s enslavers, but all that Guyana gets for its futile hopes are clowns in zebra suits, preening at and pretending at being leadership thoroughbreds.
When Guyana needs warriors to fight for it, all it gets are these wimps behind skirts, who daintily skirt the confrontations that should be had.