From Where I Stand: No Applause Necessary

Nov 16, 2025 Features / Columnists, News

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By Janelle Persaud

(Kaieteur News) – I recently attended TEDNext 2025 in Atlanta, an experience that has both renewed and recalibrated my sense of duty to country. It also reminded me why I do what I do. Why I write this column. Why I push. Why I keep going, even when pushback comes; because it does come.

I’ve experienced it through subtle and not-so-subtle forms: like the time the state-appointed council at the University of Guyana pulled the venue for TEDxTurkeyen a week before it was set to take place; whispers and anonymous social media attacks; even the occasional backhanded remark from officials. A government minister recently turned to a friend of mine, right after being commended for good work, and said: “You should tell your friend—just like she’s quick to criticise, she should also acknowledge when we do well.”

It’s a sentiment I’ve heard more than once. “Why didn’t you mention all the other positive things?”

I shouldn’t have to. That’s what DPI, NCN and the Guyana Chronicle are for.  Will including the “positives” make you listen more to what I have to say? Will it make them less intent on sending their keyboard warriors to discredit my voice? We all know that the powers that be are less interested in balance. The issue is that I dare to speak up at all.

Let me say this plainly and with all the love and respect deserving of the office: citizens do not owe government ministers or others in high office commendation.

When you do your job—when you perform the duties for which you campaigned and were elected—it is not a gift to the people. It is the job. I, like most citizens, follow the law and contribute in ways far beyond the transactional expectations of citizenship. I work. I serve. I give back. And I do not expect medals for doing so.

A minister of government is elected to serve. That is the agreement. If I choose to commend him or her for exceptional work, then that is my prerogative not an entitlement. In fact, I count my vote for their reelection as my greatest act of commendation. This constant expectation of praise is rooted in a lingering post-colonial posture that sees leaders more as masters than as servants of the people. And that posture must be shed. It’s just one component of the countless inherited structures we’ve retained because it benefits the elites and those in proximity to them.

At the same event a friend nearby said, “you seem to have a problem with authority,” when I didn’t join the applause thanking the Minister for being there. I pondered that for a while. Do I struggle with authority? I do not! I have a problem with unearned applause. I’m perfectly capable of celebrating people when it’s deserved but simply showing up, especially as a public servant, doesn’t merit a standing ovation. I didn’t clap, not because I disrespected him, but because I don’t believe in automatic reverence. He’s doing his job.

This is not to say the Minister in question wasn’t deserving of applause. I just didn’t see the need to do it simply because he’s a Minister. He is, before all else, a person just like you or me. Did he applaud when I walked into the room? No. And I wouldn’t expect him or anyone else to. And that’s the point.

At TEDNext, I sat in sessions with changemakers from across the world. One was titled Engage, where I listened to grassroots organisers and democracy advocates discuss their fight to create more inclusive societies. They, too, face institutional resistance. They, too, are often made to feel like outsiders for demanding more. But they press on because democracy is not static. It is a living ideal, constantly evolving, constantly tested.

And it is not just under threat in places like Guyana. The United States, the self-appointed vanguard of global democracy, is now facing a democratic crisis of its own. So, the question arises: who is holding democracy accountable now? Who decides what a functioning democracy looks like, when even its original torchbearers are flickering?

In Guyana, we claim democratic status, but we remain what I’ve called “a democracy unevolved.” We’ve adopted the trappings of democracy, but the essence; transparency, inclusion, voice–is still heavily policed and often discouraged. We must move beyond superficial performances of democracy and build systems that truly empower people to speak, to challenge, and to shape their nation. And for the love of everything that is holy, when some citizens criticise, it is not an attack. It is an invitation to do better. To be better.

And that’s exactly what TEDxTurkeyen was designed to be; an open, respectful space for bold ideas and unheard voices, those voices that rarely make it onto conference stages or media panels. People with sharp minds and soft hearts who believe Guyana can be more than it is right now.

When the event was pulled, I was disappointed. But I now see the gift in the disruption. Being at TEDNext 2025 has opened my eyes to what’s possible. I’ve learned, expanded and connected. When TEDxTurkeyen returns in 2026, it will be bolder, better, and more inclusive.

Permit me to share another nugget from a TEDNext conversation; folks stay “in their corner” for all kinds of reasons and often times it is out of fear of losing a piece of the pie. And I get it. Survival is real. But here’s the thing: the pie is not even fully baked, and it certainly isn’t being shared equitably. Right now, the pie feeds the few.

But if enough of us push and if more of us choose courage over comfort, the pie will grow. Eventually, there will be enough to go around. But not if we all remain silent; not if we all choose safety over substance and not if, we all decide “not me”.

So I’ll keep speaking. I’ll keep building. I’ll keep showing up.

And I hope more of you will too. Because, from where I stand, the only way forward is together, and the only way we grow is by telling the truth; even when it makes people uncomfortable.

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• Applause, Janelle Persaud, TEDNext 2025, TEDxTurkeyen

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