Wanted Pathfinders

Dec 04, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

…Hard Truths 

By GHK Lall 

Kaieteur News- Guyanese could be excused if they thought that I am in the hunt for an SUV made by Nissan Motors of Japan.  What is being searched for are Guyanese pathfinders.  Where are they, when now most needed?  Can the people of Guyana have one at least, if they can’t have a half dozen?  The questions lead to some clashes between teeth and tongue because the prospects are so few, the territory is so barren.

Many segments of the multicolored demographic of Guyana have stereotyped a particular smaller section as ‘passive.’  Passive to the point of being docile.  Sharp words that come back to haunt, as shall be revealed below.  Two major segments within the national population base of Guyana insult each other about which one is more passive these days, were held as being so for a long time.  Both of those two segments don’t look too good themselves, when their own records are examined.  As if not to be left out of the degrading domestic action, the foreigners come here, look around, and hoist a glass (or a drinker’s dozen) to cheer their good fortune.  It is as has been studied and said, reported over and over again: Guyanese are a marvel of passiveness and docility.  From top to bottom, and as far as its sides can be stretched.

Which group of citizens anywhere in the world would own all this oil, and still allow a batch of foreigners to come in, takeover, and walk all over them?  Without a finger lifted to fight off the intruders.  Which country in the world could be so lacking in substance and sinew that it cannot produce one national leader who possesses the muscle and the will to stand up and lead his or her people to thwart and neutralize a horde of invaders?  Specifically, a horde of invaders, in the mold of Christopher Columbus and Francisco Pizarro and Hernan Cortez, who come fishing not for gold, silver, and other precious metals but those invaders who are here today for the most precious commodity of all: oil.

Now that the conference table has been set up, the question could be asked, a series of them.  Where are the pathfinders in Guyana?  Where are those who are determined to blaze a path that shifts the local oil story (and culture) to that point where it has Guyana and Guyanese written all over it?  Can Guyana not find one leader that is a pathfinder where this sacred national oil patrimony is concerned?  Surely, this country cannot be so pauperized and paralyzed that it cannot boast of one son or one daughter who is brave enough, has enough brainpower and willpower to be curious, at least.  Curious about the possibilities with this oil.  Curious about carving out a way that brings the most joy to citizens first, and not first to the exploiters, who are really predators behind their smiling disguises.  Curious about the kind of personal sacrifice that has to be made, and then steel self to make it.

Part of the local political leadership game now in full swing is to point the finger of blame and shame at each other.  Meanwhile, the people at Exxon are busy with merrily ringing up their cash registers.  Let them fight.  Exxon will fetch away the oil and make its income statements flourish.  The blame game is a neat trick that is now transparent, because it has been used for so long that the sheen has worn off.  It exposes ragged human material beneath.  When local political groups and leaders find fault with one another, the idea is to distract the population, make a big show of being about something, despite representing nothing that puts Guyanese on a different level with their oil wealth.  What leaders are playing is one of the oldest con games around.  They take aim at each other, when what they are really engaging in, actually perfecting, is setting up the Guyanese people.  For a hard fall.  For another disappointment from the hollowness of their promises (later will be greater).  Or, on the competing side: we can and will do better.  Like hell they will.

I will tell Guyanese what they do well.  Guyanese leaders have become very good at being grovelers.  They take the path of least resistance and pride themselves in being pathetic rollovers before the White man.  The easier undertaking, the more headline grabbing one is to bash the known internal enemies and make demons out of them.  It is easy.  It does not cost anything.  And it never goes out of season.  Elections seasons have one objective: rekindle the passions, restore the flames.  All the old myths (plus newer ones), the old prejudices, and the book of ancient ignorance are exhumed, so that Guyanese can consume one another.

When Guyana and Guyanese need pathfinders, this is who and what they get.  Sacrifice, who is that big fool?  Lead from the front in the fight for more from this oil, now there is the biggest fool around.  When Guyanese need pathfinders and trailblazers, they find themselves having to settle for dissemblers and dodgers at best, and hookers and brownnosers at their worst.  The discovery of oil should have unearthed the best in Guyana.  What was discovered is how passive and pitiful Guyana’s political players are.  How pleased they are with their paltry, passive selves.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) 

(Wanted Pathfinders)

---

• demographic of Guyana, hard truths, Nissan Motors of Japan, pathfinders in Guyana

---