According to President Ali, the Leader of the Opposition, ‘Aubrey Norton is not needed to forge ahead with the ‘One Guyana’ mission.’ The world is littered with wiser words from wiser leaders, and look how and where they ended up. Do the leaders in the PPP Government know the full implications of some of their postures, the words that now flow easier and easier because of some practicing before the mirror and friendly audiences? Do they care that some of these hard sentiments expressed so cavalierly could have the opposite of what they have in mind? That is, radicalize rather than bring about any kind of compromise that is so urgently needed here.
‘One Guyana’ what is it? No, not what is it in the sound bite, or on paper? But what is it at its core? One Guyana, as can be interpreted from the actions of the PPP Government and PPP leaders like President Ali, has come to signify the sinister: One people setting up to be supreme. One group rises above the others. One tribe soaring into ascendancy. I would argue that if anyone, [and I mean anyone] dares to speak of one of anything in any place at any time that there are numerous clashing constituencies and contradictory cultures, then it would take more than yeoman effort, and more than a miracle. It would require on a continuously mandatory basis, the expression and exercise of a powerful and magnetic sincerity and humility that draws all the bands of disparate people and ideas and visions under that single umbrella envisioned. In the wider world that it what has to be, for there to be some semblance, some stirring toward success.
In the small, passionate, and heaving world of Guyana, where minds are set in stone, and heels are driven deep into the hardening cement, the talk of One Guyana in the best of intentions (if such really is the case) and the best of environments run into ferocious headwinds and jagged rocks. There are too many harsh, sharp memories; and too much unending bitterness that is stoked and incited at every opportunity. Neither the PPP nor the President can speak about this One Guyana when there is always harking back to the 1960s and all that Burnham did from that time forward. It would be the equivalent of reaching out with one hand for a handshake in the best version of One Guyana while having the other hand cocked to slap across the face. The reasoning is over my head, but I do not discern how the chances and interests of forging ahead are well served with the passions that are dug up and dug up from over three decades ago wildly when the PPP Government and its various spokespeople have been ceaselessly beating the drums of distant decades. It does not reach out and restore. It rouses and ranks. When the focus is so much on rigging (as bad as that was) it does not contribute to resounding spirits. Particularly in the hearts of the people who needed to make One Guyana solidify and spiral into something superior to what we live with now.
For the President to say somewhat disdainfully that Norton is not needed for his One Guyana program is undermining to his own initiative. To dismiss so thoughtlessly close to half of the electorate with a contemptuous sweep of the hand and rolling stream of words off the tongue confirms how much the President can be his own worst enemy. Onlookers observe arrogance in action. Arrogance is a nice word that some may substitute for divider and scorner. Before One Guyana can gather its pants cuffs and hemlines, it splits at the seams. It is better to think before speaking than just speak because it is so sweet.
What is conspicuous about Excellency Ali is how much he depends on the power of the purse in presidential hands. The question that immediately comes to mind is simple: how many people will be bought out, sir? A second is this: Where is the staying power in buying over a few here and some more over there? Third, what is the overall good in the long run when these short-term fixes that sweeten the PPP leadership so much start to wear off? Fourth, isn’t it a fact of life that the beast nurtured in this manner has to be fed on a continuing scale, as in more gifts and goodies? It seems to me that we are back to square one, viz., staring at each other across the barbwire and minefields. But now there is an appreciation of what can be had since there was a quick taste.
I believe that a better approach is to engage and not enrage. On each occasion that I come across one of these swaggering, street-tough, postures from President Ali, my sense is of someone trying to upstage others as if to prove his machismo and that he still has some relevance. I feel for the man and leader, for at every turn and corner, there is the Vice President running the show and running over him without so much as care as to the substance and appearance of matters. Having been battered in the political house, as is evident to all, the President now swoops onto the scene and is all brass and bustle, demanding his way.
None of this is conducive to what favors One Guyana. President Ali should be aware of the works of the liberator Moses and the Prophet Mohamed. Both only succeeded in knitting and holding the unruly tribes some of the time. With that in mind, I humbly urge President Ali to slim down the rhetoric, to speed up the hand outstretched. He is the President. He has to go on record as having done so repeatedly. Little to lose, a world to gain.
