Gerry Gouveia’s words tell a sad story of the Guyanese mind

Mar 23, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – On Monday midday, I received a telephone call from Captain Gerry Gouveia, former President of the Private Sector Commission (PSC). Mr. Gouveia discussed with me the unfair (his adjective) remarks made against the PSC on a Zoom panel discussion by persons, purporting to be from civil society as contained in my Monday column.
As he spoke, some words were so interesting that as soon as the conversation was over, I decided to put pen to paper. I am paraphrasing what he said. After his description of the implications for Guyana if free and fair elections did not succeed, he told me that the PSC is not a one man show. It is an important institution with a constitution that has a term limit of two years for its head. It does not belong to any one person.
Those words are important for young people who have an interest in politics and who want to see a society where accountability, democracy and power diffusion are values to be preserved. What does Gouveia mean by “one-man show?” What was he getting at? I did not ask him. But that negativity and unacceptable trait is ubiquitous in Guyana. It does not take onerous investigation to see it. It is everywhere. This is a small society. In a small space, there are no secrets.
The sad dimension about this social illness is that those who are embedded with the one-man syndrome, those who do not allow for organisational accountability, those who have expanding capacity to be intolerant are the loudest voices calling for government to be accountable, tolerant and inclusive.
When I hear and see these utterances, I cringe, and wish I wasn’t living in this land. It is unbearable. When I see and listen to people degrading the PSC when I know what the PSC did for the country in 1997 and 2020, I cringe and wished that if there is a God he will strike down these people.
When I heard Mr. Gouveia speak those words about one-man property, and I decided to write about that emanation, immediately I tasked myself with sharing some historical notes that synchronise with what Mr. Gouveia said and the combination should be internalised by this young nation.
I graduated from UG in 1978 and at the same time, an organisation was born in the realm of justice and anti-dictatorship struggle. Today after 43 years, the founding individual still heads that entity. In 1976, compulsory national service was trusted upon UG. A lady friend of mine left UG. I still kept a hand-written letter she wrote me expressing her feelings.
I would like to give her that letter. It is part of her historical evolution. It has been a long journey since she wrote that moving correspondence to me. Yes I kept it the past 45 years. It is still in perfect condition. In this period that lady friend went on to participate in several organisations and today still sits at the head of them.
So many trade unionists that demand governmental accountability are at the helm of their respective unions for more than 35 years. Ask me who the head of the PSC was 10 years ago, I honestly don’t know. Ask me who the head of the Guyana Bar Association was 10 years ago, I don’t know. I doubt 90 percent of the population does. Why?
They have two-year term limits. Those persons are long gone from their respective civil society organisations. So many of them have passed through the door of leadership the past 10 years, that it is hard to remember all the faces. This is the good side to life in Guyana.
The bad side is the one-man show where there are no term limits. When there are no term limits, a creeping hold on power takes place. This then morphs into power permanence. Forever power then morphs into power intoxication. The casualties are accountability, competent leadership and most crucially, most tragically, moral responsibility.
Human behaviour does not adhere to scientific laws so in the social sciences we refer to “broad trends.” The trend is that permanent occupation of any kind of office, whether in political parties or in civic-minded organisations, always brings about moral loss. The office holder not only becomes a one-man show but lacks moral standing to lecture to anyone.
The regrettable thing about this to society is that the government of the day becomes angry and impatient with such people because they feel that such people cannot lecture to them. Like it or not, the government of the day is right about such flawed critics.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

Gerry Gouveia’s words tell a sad story of the Guyanese mind

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

CWI’s Shallow, Bascombe circumspect amid two-tier Test system

Guyana to play Suriname, Grenada in “Nations...

Guyana Football Federation announces opening of...

West Indies unveil powerful 17-man squad for O50s...

Seven Regional Champions to vie for direct...

Kennard Memorial Turf Club expresses sincere...

Features/Columnists

The unconscionable terms of the PSA establish a case for renegotiation

Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves

Renegotiation – the latest Guyanese curse

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Gerry Gouveia’s words tell a sad story of the Guyanese mind

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]