Before I embark on this week’s topic, there are four things I’d like to address as a precursor to the discussion. First, I’d like to wish a speedy recovery to Commissioner of Insurance, Ms. Maria van Beek. The moment I heard that she was shot; my thoughts were driven to her wonderful kids and the rest of her family. The past few weeks have proven to be a very difficult stretch for me and the news of the attack did not help my spirits much. I don’t have any intention to speculate much on this matter, except maybe that it is an indictment of our society when someone, who has shown honesty and integrity in the performance of his/her public duties, is targeted.

However, in all the gloom, two recent news items contributed in some small way to brightening my spirits, both in relation to the Summit of the Americas currently being held in Trinidad. The greatly anticipated handshake between two of my favourite political leaders, Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez were no doubt the subject of a front-page picture in newspapers around the hemisphere, if not the world; and while it may be only symbolic, as symbols go, this is as powerful as it gets. While the original title of the article had more to do with the actual subject of this week’s column, I believe that that handshake symbolizes positive things ahead for the millions of people in this part of the world.

The other positive news coming out of the conference is the CARICOM’s selection of President Bharrat Jagdeo to lead the discussion with Obama on regional issues. Mr. Jagdeo has earned a reputation for being forceful and resolute in his deliberations in the international community and CARICOM’s choice is not only an endorsement of Mr. Jagdeo but, by extension, of Guyana as well.

The fourth item has little to do with Guyana or the Caribbean but I couldn’t resist some commentary on it – the singing phenomenon, Susan Boyle. For those of you who haven’t heard of her, I’d advise you to go google.com, type in her name, click on the Youtube link, wait for the video to load and listen. Simply put, this ordinary woman from a small village in Great Britain gives such an extraordinary performance; you’d literally have to hear it to believe. Hearing her rendition of the song, ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ was personally uplifting for me and I can’t think of anyone that that woman’s voice and performance couldn’t move. It is good to see that the world is blessed with people like the Obamas and Susan Boyle, and others who have had profoundly positive effects on us emotionally.

This week’s article is, in a sense, also about motivating people – that is, advocacy. This column has mostly focused on exploring various issues from a different perspective, in order to hopefully effect some positive change in the way certain things are done. This is basically what advocacy is, a public recommendation or support for a particular issue.

In many countries, advocacy groups have a definitive impact on whatever cause they choose to support or highlight – intellectual property rights, the prevention of cruelty to animals, women’s affairs, cultural activity. In the united States of America, for example, we see the work of the American Civil Liberties Union impacting upon legislation, or the often overboard People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) highlighting the cruelty in the fur trade. Even the lobbyist in the United States, while there may be some taint of financial opportunism there, are in fact advocacy groups in that they impact public policy by raising awareness and pressuring public officials.

In Guyana, this level of activism is hard to recognise. The one group that I have seen making some sort of impact over the years is Mothers In Black, which has worked with the slightly more publicly reserved Alicia Foundation, to promote awareness of the carnage on the roads and to lobby for changes to the way vehicular traffic is managed, from the enforcement of seatbelt laws to the resumption of specially assigned ranks for schools in high traffic areas. There are no doubt other groups that perform some advocacy work in Guyana but none immediately comes to mind that does not appear partisan in some way or the other.

I believe politics, in fact, is the one thing stymieing a greater level of advocacy in Guyana. I say politics, against the background that firstly, it tends to taint almost any impetus for social change – either by virtue of charges of partisan interests being levelled against those behind the impetus, or the fact that political interests do often drive what appears on the surface to be objective advocacy.

Politics also stymies advocacy in the sense that Guyanese seem to be culturally programmed to depend on political power as a catalyst for change rather than on other, potentially more effective channels. In a country of 750,000 we had approximately a dozen political parties contesting the elections – while this may be taken as a sign of a healthy democracy at work, at least electorally speaking, it also indicates too great a reliance on or belief in the power of politics.

I don’t subscribe to the view that the assumption of political power is the sole means to engendering social change. Indeed, by virtue of the very fact of the ability of politics to taint any particular cause in Guyana, if serious change is intended, if deadlock is to be avoided, it would appear that non-partisan advocacy is the best option.

And it isn’t that advocacy can’t or shouldn’t address politics in this society. It is inevitable that the social and the political will be intertwine or even collide. Indeed, advocacy, when done properly, is such a research intensive exercise that the benefits often spill over into public policy, particularly in areas where public officialdom would not probably have had the capacity to undertake such research. Advocacy groups also serve to encourage transparency since they force entities to be accountable to the public, particularly via public education and involvement on a particular issue. What is important however is that whenever advocacy, on an issue, has to engage the political system, it must show itself above reproach with regard to its credibility and non-partisanship, even if – as will be inevitable – its views have more in common with those on one political entity than the other.

In the upcoming weeks, in addition to a specific focus on a particular area of advocacy I wish to highlight, this column Critical Perspectives will touch on several issues, all of which I have had occasion to think extensively upon during the period this column has been absent. I want to visit the question of loyalty, for example, in terms of both public and personal sense. Then there is the issue of accountability, of definitive benchmarks, in the education system in Guyana. In closing, I’d like to wish Ms. van Beek, again, a speedy recovery and the strength to continue with her work.