In the 21st century, a people whose ancestors fought slavery and were freed from the exploitation of an indentureship system, who came together against colonial forces to improve conditions of work, to be granted independence, are not demonstrating half the willpower of their ancestors from Africa, India, Portugal, China, other parts of the world and of our First Peoples.
Why? Because we have seemingly become mentally oppressed and subjugated which I hope is just a transient state and you, heirs of fighters like Cuffy, Accara, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, Kowsilla, Cheddie Bharat Jagan, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, Peter D’Aguiar, Janet Jagan, Jane Phillips Gay, Jagnarine Singh, Ashton Chase and others.
We have become defeated in our fight for social, economic and political justice and are behaving in similar manner as any conquered animal. We are cowering with our tail between our legs, lying on our backs with our vulnerable underbelly exposed in defeat. This is the way of the defeated, watch the animal kingdom, look at the ordinary dog fights on the streets,” he highlighted.
We are afraid that we will lose our jobs, our tokens, we are afraid that we will not receive contracts and be able to ply our trade, we are afraid our children will be victims of police harassment and extra judicial killings. We are afraid of everyone with a cell phone for the spies and seekers of political favour will stop at nothing to get themselves aligned. These are behaviours similar to those that occurred under Nazi Germany. These are behaviours that worsen if unstopped and have frightening consequences to victims of such.
Discrimination is prevalent in our society. These are serious issues that our people must understand and resist. As a young boy growing up, I always wondered why this was happening, why one group was painted as bad and another good? I still find it hard sometimes to envisage what we have become and how such wanton acts of discrimination can continue for so long unchallenged in the social sphere and our courts of law.
Surely, we can rise. Irrespective of history, our ancestors all arrived here and what is important is they rise above their circumstances to make this beautiful country home. We the descendants of that paid and unpaid labour force are no less proud of them as they would be of us. Let us rise Guyana. Let us rise.
We cannot succeed if we seek only to destroy each other. It does not mean we go silent; it means that we engage with some basic understanding of the rules of engagement. We will have to set them because there are none right now; and even in instances where there are, they are not always upheld and are many times thwarted, in all government offices and the highest decision-making forum of the land.
Quite recently I had cause to accuse the government of declaring war on the Opposition PNCR and its supporters. The PPP/C has demonised the Opposition, demonised all who do not support them and demonised African Guyanese as a whole. Lyndon B Johnson, President of the United States of America in 1964 declared “war on poverty”. Through his declaration America laid the foundation for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme, (SNAP) formerly known as food stamps; Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law in 1965, Social Security expanded amongst other actions to bring alleviation to those who were the greatest victims of rising poverty.
The war on poverty continues to date as does other wars to make life better for citizens, in particular the marginalised. Today, I recognise the declaration of war by the PPP and I say we must respond in the manner of Lyndon B. Johnson, even though we do not hold the reins of state to enact change. We must bring pressure to bear on those by declaring war on discrimination of any sort against any person or group.
We must, as USA has taught us, declare war against poverty and crimes be they blue or white collar; against human and civil rights violations, against government excesses and lack of accountability; war on uneven development of our people; and war on the lies and hate that are allowed to permeate our population to pass as truth. We the people have the power to do so if we unite as one and want to avoid societal disruptions. It is the only way that we can move forward with progressive sustainable development.
We do not have to turn up our bellies. We have to mobilise, build capacity and approach the challenges of the 21st century and approach President Irfaan Ali government with shrewdness. We have to articulate our concerns with clarity and be mindful of the PPP spinners for if nothing else we know how well they can spin a story where they are the aggressors but make themselves into the victims.
We must be able to convince the business community, the religious and others that they have a social responsibility to all the people of Guyana and likewise the Caribbean Community must understand this also. We cannot be meek in our approach, but we must be mindful of the interests involved that they care about and seek to protect. We too as citizens have interest and the fulfillment of each must be a key consideration of all.
Guyana needs equitable development of all our people, we need good governance and adherence to the rule of law, we need peace and inclusion at all levels of decision making regardless of which government is in power. We need full, not partial enforcement of the Guyana Constitution. We need freedom of association. We need protection of our women, children and property even from governmental abuse.
