Cry a river of blood for our country, and for the annihilation of hope for peace in the nation as headlines scream the death-knell of the nation’s flowers, while fountains of champagne celebrate the death of innocents, because Man’s inhumanity to Man knows no boundaries, nor loyalty to kith, kin, or country.

But where is the voice of reason? Because that silent voice in nations is as guilty of shedding the blood of the innocents as much as the fingers that pulled the triggers, and the architects who create blueprints for massacre and mayhem.
Evil cannot propagate, perpetuate, nor serve in any way as a catalyst for the outcome of good, for its very definition encapsulates every consequence of destruction; so how could those who plan, propose, and orchestrate the death of Guyana’s peoples be harbingers of anything good for this nation? Which patriotic, caring leader would take his country down this path of recurrent violence, death and destruction, which almost obliterated the cohesiveness of Guyana’s nationhood in the ‘60s and set this nation’s economic and social progress on a downward spiral that graphed this once-prosperous nation on the same levels as Haiti?
Guyana is God’s Own Country but, as with the Garden of Eden, the devil resides within; and it has its serpentine coils wrapped firmly around this nation, slowly injecting its venomous brew into the national psyche and social structures because, like Satan, it wants domination and control and power over God’s creations.
Some, like Eve, are easily seduced by the promises of easy-come prosperity, forgetting that the outcome of that seduction was the loss of Paradise, and that when the PNC controlled Guyana, they transformed this Paradise into a veritable hell. Perhaps the citizenry being seduced by PNC promises crave a return to those days.
The issue of power-sharing has become a focal point, whereby PNC supporters are prepared to go to ultimate extremes for a few egomaniacs to regain administrative leverage in this country, never mind that when they had total power, they used it to destroy rather than build.
Full administrative control has always eluded the PPP/C. Rampaging corruption and ineptitude have prevailed, even after general elections of l992, thanks to the destabilizing strategies of the PNC and its traditional allies, both overt and covert. Overtly, the Trade Unions Congress (TUC), the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), and the Transport Union, all of which oppose every system the Government attempts to implement towards restoring an orderly administrative structure in the Public Service.
Covertly? Well, the discerning can judge for themselves, using past history with the House of Israel; the missing weapons; and the glorifying of “Blackie” and others of his ilk as a barometer. And if one does not condone their methods for their acquisition of greater power, and align with their concept of “kith and kin” and prefer to align with systems promoting national good, then they are called traitors. Witness the attacks on Bishop Juan Edgehill, Father Gilbert and other like-minded citizens of this land.
Members of Guyana’s Security Services, young men who are duty-bound to protect this nation, are slaughtered indiscriminately. And to what avail? Men, women, and even children, living simple lives are butchered even as they sleep in the sanctuary of their homes. Little babies are raped in front of their parents by home-invaders.
In the concept of power-sharing, power is the operative word. The contenders care not at all about the welfare of their supporters; their goal is self-aggrandisement by whatever means possible, even if this means the destruction of the country and the unity of the Guyanese people. Power is the key.
Participatory leadership is what the objective should be; and the PPP/Civic Government has implemented systems that include all stakeholders in participatory governance; in its Civic component; in the parliamentary committees; and even within Parliament itself.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan has always pursued this ideal; first by forming the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), then the PPP, with a composition of membership that bridged all the divides. Race was certainly never an issue during those days of struggle against colonialism. But greed for power reared its ugly head like the biblical serpent, and catalysed a division and distrust between Guyana’s two major races that has lasted for decades.
It is this recognition of the need for participatory leadership that prompted Dr Jagan, even while he was being cheated through the electoral process, to reach out to his opponents, either through offering critical support for some worthwhile programmes initiated by the PNC Government, or the formation of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), and the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) in efforts to restore a democratic culture in Guyana prior to l992.
But because the other leaders of Guyana were only interested in power rather than caring for the welfare of the nation, Dr. Jagan faced bitter opposition from his protagonists, to the detriment of national unity and prosperity. Today, those who want entry into government through the back door are touting power-sharing, and using every tactic of destabilisation in efforts to eventuate this outcome.
Dr. Jagan never abandoned his thinking, however, and reached out to the general society to those who dreamt, like himself, of a Government of national unity. Thus was the Civic component of the Government conceived and established. So there was no winner-take-all policy, even from the inception, if one judges from the original composition of the Cabinet. And even today, leaders from other parties as well as former ministers and prominent members of the PNC administration comprise the current Cabinet, along with a surprisingly few original members of the PPP.
The PPP/Civic Government has also retained key officials in sensitive areas of administration, and has never sought accountability from the past regime for State properties and records, much of which had disappeared when they demitted office; so there was never any witch-hunting.
Today, the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee that is mandated to scrutinise every aspect and facet of public spending has been held from the inception by the PNC.
These parliamentary committees, whereby members of Government and Opposition interrelate with all stakeholders to scrutinize and advise on the way forward for policy decisions in the governance process, have generated a mutual respect among participating MPs, who, most often, come to consensual positions, until they confer with their leaders and then the positions change as the Party holds sway, as loyalty to Party supercedes and sometimes succeed in derailing decisions taken at committee level by individual members; and strategies of destabilization and provocation ensue.
Within the parameters of the human condition, disagreement at any forum is inevitable; but it bespeaks maturity, unity of purpose, and vision transcending, and to the exclusion of, narrow partisan and personal interests to chart and hold a course toward achievement of an ideal of a nation united in purpose to carve a destiny of peace and prosperity and truly make of this country of ours a paradise on Earth.
But the hardcore veterans, whose charter includes utilization of all the Machiavellian strategies contained in the diabolical ‘ X-13 Plan’, slo’ fiah, mo’ fiah strategies, et al, are making the nation cry rivers of blood, while the voice of reason has been silenced in the thunder of the cannons that devastate the nation’s hope for a brighter future.