Pres. Ali’s One Guyana Movement: Is it an attainable ideal?

Aug 21, 2022 News

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…Veteran Regional Journalist, Mr. Rickey Singh weighs in

The Social Edge

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – It is widely acknowledged that racism has and continues to be, a chronic trigger for violence and societal decay. The scars and bruises of this evil are evident on the contours of Guyana’s anatomy.

To combat this reprehensible form of systemic oppression, policy leaders pre and post-independence over the years have embarked on a suite of efforts for social cohesion.

Standing on this fertile and well-tilled soil is President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, whose leadership has become embellished by the slogan of “One Guyana”. He has described it as a social contract for nation building, for creating one Guyanese identity.

“We must stop being defined by race, stop being defined by politics. Start being defined by our one nationality and by our common love for our one country…” This is what the Head of State had told Parliamentarians back in 2021 when he announced the establishment of a ‘One Guyana Commission’ which will be spearheaded by Prime Minister, Brigadier (rtd) Mark Phillips.

The monumental task before the Head of State is no easy one. The failed attempts by the nation’s forefathers can attest to this. Therefore, is his ‘One Guyana Movement’ truly an attainable ideal?

Veteran Regional Journalist, Mr. Rickey Singh expressed cautious optimism when weighing in on the matter recently.

During an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News, the award-winning journalist with an intimate knowledge of the L.F.S Burnham and Cheddi Jagan era said, “I think it is admirable for one of the youngest Presidents of Guyana to take that approach with a sincere effort in hopes of uniting the people across racial and religious positions. It is correspondent with the national motto, of ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’. President Ali is confirming that he wants to keep the spirit of this motto alive and well in Guyana but his efforts must not be merely a slogan. It must motivate the people of the country to live it.”

Most importantly, Singh said credit must be given to the previous leaders who first had the vision that racial division in Guyana is not the way for this country to go. He commented, “This younger generation…is not too concerned about the past but of the present and what will be the future but if today’s Guyanese do away with who is ‘Afro’ and ‘Indo’—it would do us well. We need to cut the adjectives.”

Also crucial to the equation he said is that both Government and Opposition have a duty to make this happen- to unite the country and to shy away as much as possible, from any attempt to foster racialism as a means to obtain party power. While the party will at best succeed to get into office, he said the society would always be fractured, leaving a shaky foundation upon which national goals have to be achieved. “President Irfaan Ali has an outstanding opportunity before him to be the one to achieve this, to change the course of history,” expressed the longstanding Journalist.

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

For this generation to better understand its future and mould it in the right way, in a way that truly overcomes the perils of racism, Singh insists it must better understand the past. This generation, unfortunately, has been brought up on the background of racism and we have to get away from that desperately, the former Guyana Chronicle Newspaper Columnist stated.

“One thing I wish for this generation to always bear in mind is that before Burnham and Cheddi separated and formed their own parties, they were Comrades –in- Arms. The CIA and British intelligence played a very important role in separating them. It was determined to maintain the division between those men. But Burnham, irrespective of his faults, was a visionary. He was very eloquent. Any attempt to diminish the value and importance of LFS Burnham is going to be an insult to political history. But one cannot sweep under the rug that the Burnham regime transformed rigged elections into a fine political art form. This lasted for 21 years until it changed in 1992 with Jagan.”

He noted, however, that the late Dr. Jagan although he had his vision for leadership, could not succeed unless he worked to unite the country and that is where he and Burnham still forged a friendship. “That empowerment coming from both men and realizing they were both socialists, the US saw it as a threat and intervened,” expressed the veteran journalist. “I am therefore advocating that this generation should not run the risk of compounding the error by saying ‘oh don’t worry about the past,’ but you have to understand it in order to know where you want to go and come up with original ideas to get there. Ali has the opportunity to do it,” stated Singh.

INTEGRITY OF ELECTIONS

The revered Journalist also highlighted the need for Guyana to strengthen its electoral systems since perceptions about the integrity of the process could also inflict more fractures into the ethnic lithosphere.

Singh categorically stated that rigged elections represent an insult to the votes freely cast; it makes a farce of it. “I covered all of the elections beyond Independence and beyond the Republic and I would agree that there is a link between rigged elections and stoking the racial divide.” Singh also agreed that society has to be assured that the system is foolproof to the machinations of any political party, adding that a guarantee of a free and fair election would contribute to healing tensions.

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION

Noting that he has no reason to doubt Ali’s sincerity with his ‘One Guyana Movement’, Singh said he is however anxious to see how the Head of State will spell that out, not in an election manifesto but exactly how he will transform this country with a multi-ethnic society.

As a start, he recommended that the Head of State should have a physical representation of what this ‘One Guyana’ should represent. “Perhaps, he can start with a monument or bust of Jagan and Burnham in their days as comrades and what they represented at the time. They were the first visionaries of Guyana and the leaders of today, are at the forefront and they have taken the baton and are moving the nation into the land of unity,” the Caribbean Journalist expressed.

He also felt it prudent to reiterate that the ‘One Guyana Movement’ can only be achieved through a coordinated set of activities between the President and Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton, while noting the importance of involving the nation’s youth in the equation.

NO REGRETS

At the age of 85, Singh currently lives a peaceful life between Barbados where he has lived since 1978, and Trinidad, with his children.

His entire career has been fashioned in the fire of integrity and professionalism; so much so that his unwavering journalistic principles saw him being exiled by the Burnham regime for his factual reporting on the dictatorship of that era.

After moving to Trinidad and Tobago in 1974, Singh’s reputation for being a forthright commentator also saw him being forced to leave as his work permit was not renewed. He then moved to Barbados. This pattern was to be repeated when his work ran him afoul of Barbados Prime Minister, Tom Adams. He was later granted permanent residency and settled there until recently.

Over the years, Mr. Singh who initially started as a trainee reporter in the 1950’s with the Graphic newspaper  (now Guyana Chronicle) in colonial British Guiana, would move on to write for the ‘Express’, Trinidad and Tobago, the ‘Observer’, Jamaica, and the ‘Nation’, Barbados.  He also freelanced for a number of American, British and Caribbean publications, including ‘Newsweek’, the ‘Daily Mail’ and ‘Mirror’ of London and Reuters. He was also Editor of the ‘Caribbean Contact’, the then monthly newspaper of the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC).

He served for many years as the current affairs correspondent for the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) and was also the Founder/President of the Caribbean Media Workers Association (CAMWORK), the first-ever regional body to represent Journalists of the Caribbean through a network of national associations.

His career also afforded him the opportunity to broaden his knowledge of international affairs which he credits to the various diplomatic missions operating in the Caribbean. He has been to Russia, Germany, China, just to name a few and all were sponsored.

Additionally, Singh is the recipient of a number of local, regional and international awards for his contribution to journalism, including those presented by the national Journalist Associations in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Lucia and the International Organisation of Journalists. In 2002, for example, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in recognition of his fight for a free Caribbean media.

Notably, Singh has shared some of the most enriching conversations with the likes of Guyanese poet and political activist, Martin Carter, prominent Guyanese Historian and Politician, Dr. Walter Rodney, Writer and friend, George Lamming, Sir Shridath Ramphal, Barbadian Journalist, Harold Hoyte (now deceased), and South African Singer and Songwriter, Miriam Makeba. Singh was also the only person in the English-speaking Caribbean Region to have a full interview with the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro when he was still in office, and a rare and lengthy interview with late Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Dr. Eric Williams.

Though his indomitable spirit and commitment to Journalism often times left his family in dire straits, not to mention constant threats to his life and the veil of privacy over his life, constantly pierced by tapped phones, Singh said that he has no regrets.

“In retrospect, I think my work as a Journalist was clearly misunderstood. I was not opposed to any government. I was simply doing my job; I did what every professional journalist does, distinguished by a deep sense of credibility,” expressed Singh.

He was keen to note however that his lifelong partner, Patricia Evelyn Singh (fondly called Dolly), who passed away seven years ago, provided tremendous support, love, and devotion, thereby allowing him to be as fearless and as noble as can be.

Their love remains immortalised in the lives of his six children, 17 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Though in his eighties and dealing with the appendages of old age, Singh continues to keep a watchful eye on the maneuverings of Guyana’s political landscape. He remains hopeful, that his homeland, will fully realised the aspirations of its motto—‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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