Today I return to the thrust of my article published in Village Voice News on 5th August 2022, captioned: “Preoccupation with handshake distracts from issues of good governance, rights and participation in national economy.” I’d expressed concern that the nation was being distracted from the importance of good governance, and desire of all the Guyanese people to meaningfully participate in the nation’s development and reap its bounty, by the refusal to have a handshake. The brouhaha was over Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s refusal to shake President Irfaan Ali’s hand.
More than two years later, the exclusion, ethnic tension and division, and state of governance are worse off than we were before, as the Jagdeo/Ali regime continues to use that refusal of a silly handshake to run roughshod over the nation and shut out half the society. We all should be concerned that in oil rich Guyana at least half the society is poor and so many are struggling daily to put three meals on the table.
And whilst some debated the merit or demerit of the handshake, even shrugged it off, more than two years later the chickens are coming home to roost. Unfortunately, there are too many influential voices in the Guyanese society who remain silent as persons placed in positions to serve, violate, with impunity, the laws and individual’s rights; are rude and discourteous to the masses. The silence of significant players in society is contributing to the continued:
i) Exclusion of the main political opposition and other interest groups on issues that impact the wellbeing of citizens, which stands in strong contrast to Article 13 of the Constitution that mandates “inclusionary democracy.”
ii) abuse of state properties and money as we witness one overpriced and bad contract after another. Billions of our tax dollars are being diverted through corruption and fattening friends and cohorts of the regime.
At the same time the Opposition cannot be allowed to abdicate its responsibility to be more forthright and militant in holding this rapacious and lawless regime accountable.
The absence of the opposition working with stakeholders in developing a counter strategy to the self-serving one Guyana agenda by way of motions, bills and other forms of activism, including civil disobedience, continue to be of concern. A few have sought to escape doing their job or holding the opposition’s feet to the fire on the pretext that it is not good for the oil economy. Let me make my position on this issue very clear: If we want social and political peace then it must be underpinned by social, economic and political justice. And when this is not happening, we must hold the enablers of these violations accountable. Nowhere in history has any marginalised group, people or nation achieved anything without a struggle. Nowhere.
And let us not be fooled, those who are saying we must remain silent in the face of escalating injustices and unfairness or absolve the Government and Opposition from doing right by the people, their bread is well buttered. We who are facing the harshness, the brutality, the exclusion, the discrimination, being made to feel one can only eat bread made out of stone, must push for greater accountability from those we elect and are paying to be in service to us. The state of affairs in this oil rich economy must change for the betterment of all, not some. We, the citizens of Guyana, deserve and must demand no less.
