FINDING agreement, seeing common grounds, all of us acknowledging definite facts of life in Guyana today, this would go a far way in healing the rift, dissent and strife that bedevils our body politic and social space.Opposition spokespeople refuse with a stubborn stiff-neck to agree with Government on some of the most obvious truths about our society today.
It’s either Opposition folks wear blinkers in a deliberate ploy to deceive themselves, or they act with wicked intent. Whatever it is, the Opposition does itself a grave disserve, because it damages its own reputation and image in claiming some rather ridiculous stuff about our 21st Century Guyanese nation.
Two obvious deceptions that the lower minds among the Opposition camp try to foster upon us are that Guyana is today a dictatorship, and that no development happens.
So ridiculous and crass is this irrational, angry viewpoint that few citizens take it seriously, though the proponents of such lies find ready platform in a wayward, wild national media, causing vociferous and vocal noise nuisance in the national ear.
Sane minds among the Opposition cabal must, absolutely must, agree with the following:
* President Donald Ramotar, in his humble service-leadership, puts Guyana first, and cares about the nation.
* In President Ramotar enacting the Rodney Commission, he’s performing a necessary and crucial role as President, in bringing healing and reconciliation to the national soul.
* President Ramotar, despite severe tearing down from the 10th Parliament, achieved the outstanding success of socio-economic growth over the three years of his Presidency to date. In fact, Guyana achieved the best growth rate in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
* Guyanese achieve universal Primary education, is on the verge of achieving universal Secondary education, and has embarked on achieving universal Tertiary education.
* The Marriott is a great achievement for the Guyanese nation.
* As the Manifesto of the ruling Party shows, Government has developed a sound and comprehensive socio-economic vision for this nation over the next five years.
* Guyanese today enjoy the confidence of even the United States, with freedom to travel to North America with ease and ready access.
* Government’s national housing program is a stunning success story, worthy of emulation in developing countries around the world.
We could go on listing positives of Guyana today, ad infinitum.
We’re not saying here that the Guyana Government built a utopia. We’ve got issues and challenges to overcome, but President Ramotar listens to us, and takes steps to address such issues as Public Sector corruption, the sad state of our national media landscape, which demoralizes and demotivates citizens, and many others.
Much of this he’s outlined in the Party’s election manifesto.
No human society ever functions with perfection. Human nature being what it is, we’ve always got stuff to work on, challenges to overcome, problems to solve.
And we want to cultivate a national atmosphere whereby we’re a solution-oriented people. For this to happen we’ve got to design a national stage for the political Opposition to ditch its mean, myopic, miserable ways, and instead become a constructive, cooperating, collaborative force in the task of evolving the Guyanese nation into our potential as a 21st Century knowledge society.
Government functions with an eye to solutions, and designs projects, programs and plans that look to the future, that develops our country. Government doesn’t see problems and find excuses. Government works to overcome the fallibility of human nature to cause us to rise as a people on the world stage.
With free and fair national and regional elections now an entrenched reality, the only national organ that takes on providing solutions, new initiatives and developmental vision for us is our Government.
We see citizen-participation in the development process through a thriving Non-Governmental sector, but much of this depends on grant funding and aid from overseas, and all too frequently functions as stop-gap social programs.
The Private Sector also, despite its lack of real vision and widespread corruption embedded in its soul, partners well with Government to cause development to happen.
Government has built solid relationships with Private Sector organizations, civic bodies and citizen groups.
Left out in the cold in all this is the pouting Opposition, which touts a story of Guyana awfully foreign to the ear of any rational, independent-thinking Guyanese.
Opposition folks would do their constituency and supporters the world of good just to acknowledge that Guyana has leaped forward, and no longer languishes in gross poverty, with rigged elections and State paranoia making us a laughing stock in the world.
How good their supporters would feel to hear their leaders tell them that Guyana offers them a brilliant opportunity for self-development and personal growth, to encourage Guyanese to embrace progress and build on the platform of solid socio-economic development across the land.
This motivating, inspiring message from the ruling Party side of the fence drives Government supporters with lifted spirits, a soaring soul, and a determined effort to rise in the world, to achieve our personal dreams and to aspire to greater things.
Left behind, Opposition supporters hear their leaders tell them that they can’t pursue self-development, because Government is bad. Such things smack of wickedness and a dreaded mindset, set on tearing down and self-destructing our nation.
Such is the human condition, that little tweaks in the political attitudes within the Opposition camp, to, for example, reign in those who tear down our national social space with wrong words, would go a far way in repairing the image and reputation of our body politic.
Guyana today faces some serious challenges, like the brain drain, and, like every country in this global village in today’s new, emerging Knowledge Age, we’re working to re-design our way of being to see taking root a culture of knowledge pursuit and lifelong learning.
We work to develop and grow our national knowledge pool, to see our human resources capital become our greatest national asset. We know that our intellectual capital forms the foundation for our future, and that’s why such goals as universal Secondary and Tertiary education operate at the forefront of our development goals.
These things should occupy the Opposition, instead of the small, petty issues that cause sleepless nights and angry tirades in the wild media landscape across this nation.
Let’s agree on these things, and we’ll cultivate and engineer and create a smooth, strife-free foundation for our national discussions, debates on programs, and modus operandi to achieve our developmental vision.
Unless we agree on these fundamental things, we would fall out of alignment with the structural necessity of creating a Guyanese social space that hums with excitement, inspiring energy and aliveness, our people facing the same direction, knitted together in heart and soul as one people, moving to bring into reality the Guyana Dream, to make us a great nation in this 21st Century world.