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Democratic standards demands that there be willingness to negotiate out of the standoff that exists between the Government of Guyana, and the teachers of Guyana. The Laws of Guyana require that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government uses its abundant resources to bring an end to this damaging strike. If that is too much to ask, then to bring to the room of conversation would be an applaudable start. Honourable leaders, honourable people, honourable men, stretch themselves thin to fulfill the oaths sworn to in the name of democracy. This is the path that I have seen, which has not been taken. There is still time that presents opportunities for the willing to negotiate for a way out of this impasse. Each day of strike action, each day of an empty classroom, commands that such willingness be of the utmost immediacy.
This is not about negotiating from some haughty position held onto, viz., that of those in control, those who call the shots, and command any space that is chosen. Negotiation with such victories in mind produces only the pyrrhic kind. More harm done than good. More lingering resentments that just wouldn’t fade away, let things be, through starting over. Fresh and clean. Quiet and committed. Pensive and productive. Mr. Mark Lyte is not Maduro; nor are the striking teachers of Guyana part of the syndicato of Venezuela. They are as Guyanese as President Ali, no less so than Vice President Jagdeo. I would argue more so.
The PPP Government may deserve such thinking, having called it upon itself. But it must not be degraded into either the devilish or the loutish, no matter how much its pungent actions are reflective of both. When only enemies are sighted, then it is simply a matter of time passing before the territory gets abrasively lonely. Guyana’s teachers deserve every right to strike with dignity. The PPP Government is right to have some expectation of respectful consideration. As hard as dignity and respect may be to manage in the minds of both sides, the most strenuous of efforts must still be sincerely and comprehensively attempted. Let no stone be left unconsidered and unturned in genuine endeavors to close this sorry chapter in government-teacher history.
Politician love to talk to remain central attractions, and teachers must talk almost all day, as a matter of duty and routine. For two groups of people who make their living, actually thrive, on talking, the resistance and silence on moving towards the huddled circle of negotiation is dumbfounding. The PPP Government and President Ali must bear the brunt of the negativity on the dismal failure to be in the same boardroom and to have the same issue as the central conversation.
Both President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo have been milkmen of the highest order in times of constriction and threatened convulsion. Both leaders from the PPP Government love to assume the role of men in white hats on white horsebacks riding into town to sort out whatever difficulties exist, and set things straight. What has happened to them today in the circumstances of striking teachers? Why have they not now manifested the same zealous and engaged spirit of old to bring the curtain down on this teachers’ strike of 2024?
To negotiate in good faith in a bad situation. Never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. If that sounds like John F. Kennedy in January 1961 in the American era that was believed to be the arrival of Avalon, it is. To negotiate, with both sides listening with an open mind, and the exclusion of tabling of those offers that leave no choice but to refuse them. When there is the reflexive resorting to “Us” versus “them”, then the uncorked bottle only lets loose more mischievous genies. As Guyanese, we already have too many of them. Memory that will not let go. History that will not lift up. Duty and responsibility that will not see losers or victors, but have to be delivered in the cauldron of crisis that promises to crush.
It has been too long, and the quagmire coalesces. Some bad blood has been spilled in public, piercing already raw and open wounds. Threats. Smears. Attempts to intimidate and cow into submission. For the most part, it has been a one-sided street, as largely paraded by PPP Government operators, and enablers. Considering the now sticky and inseparably vileness, it is the nature of Guyanese democracy and how it prospers. One side has the power to halt the heats coming from the streets. It is the PPP Government, the president.
The government has to take the first step, and there is the fullest awareness of what it has to be. For the unenlightened and the unmoving, it is the ‘n’ word. When nobody listens, there is a colony of the deafened. When there is listening, there could emerge what is reasonable in visions, and what is acceptable on its merits. Nobody gets everything. Everybody walks away with something. If this is truly more than a cooperative republic, one that is more than in the name, then cooperation commences here, then the door to hard fought compromise and consensus may open ever so slightly.
The ball is on President Ali’s side of play. He must work hard to prevent being about hardballs or any foul balls. Only what honest men deem to be fair balls will help master the situation. Mr. President, the hour to negotiate has arrived. My preference is for a sliding scale of 20% first, then 15%, and last 10%. Fairness. Fearlessness. And forthrightness, too. The striking teachers of Guyana wait on President Ali, and the PPP Government. A mutually fruitful wait is anticipated. May the most balanced resolution be the outcome.