By Lincoln Lewis
Without exception, no group can survive without the others. No group has within themselves the resources and capacity to operate independently of others. It is a fact in the productive, distributive and consumptive cycle we depend on each other. You may have the goods or services to provide but the ability to profit/benefit from these relies on those who purchase them, and those who depend on the spending power of others to secure their economic interest.
The labour landscape, be it entrepreneurial, employed, government or non-government reveals ethnic diversity and in some instances concentration of an ethnic group. Can we in pursuit of our interest say we will not utilise the services or goods of this or that group because they do not look like us, believe in the same thing we do, or do not share similar political persuasion? Are we, in the pursuit of securing our self-interest, particularly those guaranteed in the Constitution of Guyana, think we can arrogate to ourselves a ‘right’ to deprive others their rights?
Persons may try, but they won’t be allowed to succeed. The experiences and lessons of history, including those of our forebears which proudly run in our veins, show that man has always resisted efforts or acts to dehumanise him. It will be no different this time and it is to this reality we turn, hopefully, sooner rather than later. It is the reality of our equality and innate desire to be treated with dignity and respect which will force recognition that irrespective of class, ethnicity, socio-economic standing, power or otherwise, the sanitation worker in the scheme of things is vital to our health, the police officer is necessary for our safety and security. The nurse is essential to our care, the teacher to our education, the vendor to the produce we seek, the customer to your sales, and so forth.
Someone once said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” We cannot as a people hold on to primitive notions of intolerance and think we can progress even as the world moves forward. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us, “In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be…This is the inter-related structure of reality.”
Writing from his cell in the Birmingham jail he goes on to say, “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.” Whereas King was speaking about the civil rights struggle in the United States and the fractured relationship between the coloured and white races, Guyana and Guyanese can identify.
Our struggle, though it manifests in all its rage and disdain at elections is real and ever present, and for the good of Guyana we cannot continue the pretence. We must address what grieves and offends us in frank, honest and open conversations. History shows that to be right or take a stand for what is right could come at great sacrifice in the face of intolerance, fear, and notion that might is right. This should only serve as a lesson or challenge when we encounter them, not hindrance to pursue what is just, right, and fair.
We are “One People, One Nation, One Destiny.” Our survival, humanity is mutually intertwined. Honest acknowledgement will bring respect in thoughts, actions, and treatment of each other. Given that all 83, 000 square miles of this nation is ours, including the resources within, above and beneath, all, under the constitution are entitled to equality, right to work, free speech, assemble, ownership of property, share in the national patrimony, political association, protection from discrimination, etc.
Citizens are urged to acquaint themselves with these basic rights for knowledge is power and power serves as a propeller in advancing one’s welfare. The future belongs to all of us and we must go forth boldly and claim it or others will dictate it.
