Civil groups and political leadership

Mar 09, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News– We are encouraged that more and more Guyanese are joining in the struggle to overcome the twin devils that ride at will in our poor and weak society. In recent times, several civil groups have come out to voice public concerns over how our oil wealth is being managed, what are the threats that could endanger our environment, and how the livelihoods of those in the fishing sector are jeopardised, to pinpoint just a few areas of alarm over what is taking place with this newfound oil of ours. Worse still, from a general perspective many, if not all of the groups coming out and taking a public stand, have expressed intensifying disagreements with the overall manner of governance that prevails in Guyana today.
For their interests, passions, troubles, and doing what they feel is their patriotic and individual duty, these civil groups have come under fire and are vilified in one way or another. It is not the usual scurrilous attacks that are now essentials of the anonymity and cowardly practices of social media. Rather incredibly, this is coming from the head of state of this country, the President himself. From what can be gathered in his choice of words and the tone of them, he is beside himself with fury and what we will term anxiety and much wasted energy.
We say this, because it is becoming apparent that the young and unseasoned President of Guyana is unaware that even in the best of societies (which Guyana is far from being), and in the most unified ones (which Guyana has never been, and is in a worse divided state today than it has ever been), there are those and will be those, who come into conflict with what the government of the day does. They will rise up to contradict what the leaders in government say and do. When constructive such is a healthy practice, and one to be lauded for shedding light of where things are obviously wrong, point to what falls short, and what cries out for revisiting, adjustment, and correction.
The President cannot be so controlling, and so self-congratulating, as to harbour the belief that only he and his political party, and their comrades, have what it takes where truth and justice, right and wrong, are concerned. The President and his government and his party all ought to remember that such illustrious figures of history as Moses, Jesus, the Prophet Mohamed, and Buddha, though they all preached and practised an immaculate way of life were condemned and pushed to their extreme limits. As His Excellency should know well, there are glaring gaps in his government, and this is regarding many crucial areas and needs, those that are laced with much hope, many dreams. He must listen and learn, and he must grow.
He must not be so self-possessed to pat himself on the back and power ahead with what many honest and honourable citizens of this country find fault, raise their voices against. The President and his government are not the sole arbiters of what constitutes proper oil management, or clean governance, or principled leadership. Moreover, civil society groups must not be seen as enemies, but as fulfilling a much-needed vital role. As can be gathered, there is little pushback from within the bowels of the PPP/C Government itself. There is no mechanism; no messenger that touches upon self-correction. Once there was a Roger Luncheon, who held some things and some wayward party people in check. Again, the President could and should learn; he must.
He should be the one standing up to his Vice President and say not this way, not this time, and not on this watch. The Vice President works for him, and at his pleasure. Regrettably, given the manipulations of the Honourable Vice President, it is the other way around. Where, instead of the President welcoming the inputs of civil groups (which the non-PPP/C world agrees are on the right tracks), he works himself into a lather, as ordered, and lashes out at them.
Instead of the President being a builder, he is a destroyer. Civil groups have Guyana at heart. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the President.

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Civil groups and political leadership

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