APPROXIMATELY two-thirds of this nation’s population can be defined as young people. This is a tremendous percentage of human capital, untested and untainted by the past some are pre-occupied with and use as a wedge to keep the nation divided and retard its development. For too long the young have allowed themselves to be viewed as dis-interested in what is taking place around them, or to merely serve as vessels to be used for others’ agendas. The time has come for the young to accept their right to shape the nation’s future is not a figment of their imagination, but constitutionally guaranteed.
Never before has this nation seen such a large segment of our population demonstrating a perception that they are not up to speed to play a meaningful role in charting this nation’s destiny. Never before has this nation seen such untapped potential seemingly content with speaking authoritatively to issues not directly related to Guyana, while taking a passive-aggressive approach to things affecting them at home, or seeking to flee rather than stay and fight and create the environment desired.
What remains striking to me is that this generation during the 2011 and the 2015 General and Regional Elections energised the campaigns by arousing their peers and elders to get involved and take a side. As I walk around the country, I cannot find this enthusiasm and wonder what is responsible for dissipation of the energy. These were the people who moved our politics and campaign to social media, but today what is obvious is that social media by the same group is being used to express disconnect about various aspects of governance within the nation, absent the mobilising fervour to bring about the change they yearn for.
Politics does not start and end at the ballot box. Politics properly practised is about people and societal development. This means it requires every one staying engaged in the day-to-day activities in society to ensure that decisions made that impact their lives have their inputs at all stages. This in itself requires constant mobilisation at community, national and sectoral levels, with a view to developing programmes that can secure and advance their interests.
In the young’s defence, being fed so many negatives of the past and told that they have to wait their turn could be de-motivators. Notwithstanding this, the young must seek knowledge of this country’s history and use it as the barometer in determining the path they want to travel. To be disengaged from politics on a day-to-day basis when politics impacts everyone’s life from the womb to the tomb is to abrogate civic duty and responsibility to influence decision-making in the direction that would bring about and ensure the society you desire.
Those who are saying to the young that they must wait their turn are not accurately using the nation’s history in charting a developmental path where they have played a progressive role. If Cuffy and others had accepted the notion that involvement is a turn system, the struggle for freedom would have been delayed. If the 23-year-old Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow had awaited instructions on when to get involved, the 1905 struggle he lead with waterfront workers for improved working and living conditions would not have happened, neither would there have been that national foundation agitating for improved conditions and political independence in the 20th century.
If Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham who were in their 20s, along with other young guns like Rory Westmaas, Eusi Kwayana, Ashton Chase, Janet Jagan, Jane Phillips-Gay and Boyise Ramkarran had in the 1940s decided or accepted they had to wait until they were in their 50s and 60s, Guyana would not have achieved 50 years of independence. Their leadership, grit and determination in significant ways rallied the people in demanding their independence as a matter of right to self-determination.
Had my generation not stood up and be counted in making our mark felt, the works of those that preceded us would have been eroded or would have been at standstill. In my 20s, I became involved in trade unionism out of a passion to improve working and living conditions for my generation. At age 29, I was elected assistant secretary and became the youngest member on the Central Executive of the Guyana Bauxite Supervisors Union.
The record will show that I stood up to management of companies and respective presidents and members of their cabinets, consistent with trade union principles and the goals the union I represented set out to achieve. This nation’s first proposal that realised an agreement on conditions for redundancy, where each employee receives six weeks’ pay for each year of service, a feat that remains unmatched in the Caribbean, was written by me. This work later led the way for the enactment of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act. There are other accomplishments, but this article is not about me, but about two-thirds of the nation’s people whose potential are yet to be tapped.
Each generation in its youth must create its own history and legacy. Only through such action can a nation grow and develop. In 2012, when the young Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon and Member of Parliament Vanesssa Kissoon of Region 10 challenged central Government’s imposition of an increase in the electricity tariff, it represented a new generation taking its place in the nation’s development. It ought not to be forgotten that this challenge was the result of non-consultation with the people which was violation of a constitutional requirement.
The young having observed the treatment meted out to Solomon and Kissoon post-2012, may have come to interpret this as deterrence in playing leading and active roles in influencing the country’s direction. But history will be kind to Solomon and Kissoon and damn those who seek to muzzle and suppress them. That having been said, this generation represents the nation’s majority and it’s time they arouse and take their place in shaping theirs and the country’s future.