There is a saying in Singapore that runs thus: ‘Community before self; nation before community’. The overriding thinking behind this saying is that the national interest should take precedence ahead of community interests and most certainly before individual interest. This outlook of putting the interests of the collective ahead of narrow self-interest has occupied the writings of several leading philosophers including the early Greeks who could be regarded as the pioneers of political organization of societies along democratic lines as was manifested in the Greek city states. The Greeks are credited as the earliest people who experimented with democratic forms of political life, even though much of it was circumscribed by the prevailing ethos of inequality based on slavery and creed.

Be that as it may, the philosophical and political outlook of fostering in every citizen the imperative of putting the nation-state over that of individual interests cannot be missed. This was particularly pronounced in the state of Athens during the days of Pericles when he wrote:

“An Athenian citizen does not neglect the state because he takes care of his own household: and even those of us who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of politics. We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless but as a useless character, and if few of us are originators, we are all sound judges of policy.”

The analogy here is that since not all men and women are equally prone to political interests and activism, a way must be found to ensure that only the best from among members of society who are fully seized with the art and science of statecraft should be allowed to assume the mantle of political leadership. Politicians should be people who understand the needs of society just in the same way that a doctor understands the needs of the human body and are therefore best placed to administer the right treatment for a healthy body.

These of course are extreme views and cannot hold water in modern day political systems. The body-politic is not the same as that of an individual being and are therefore far too complex and variegated to lend itself to such simplistic notions of political governance. The situation is much more complicated in diverse societies such as ours where race, class and religion conspire to obfuscate rational voting behavior.

This is why any attempt to legislate democracy and even worse to come up with a democratic blueprint is unlikely to work and bear fruit. Take the situation in Zimbabwe and Nigeria where attempts at power sharing between rival political parties are characterized more by tensions and political stress than by any serious attempt at genuine reconciliation. South Africa is perhaps one of the few success stories of national reconciliation but not without some cracks in the edifice of the parties involved including that of the ruling ANC.

It took the strength of a Nelson Mandela to hold the competing interest groups in some state of equilibrium. As to how long this will last remains to be seen.

All of this is not to suggest that I have a problem with power-sharing modalities especially in the context of plural societies where ethnic considerations weigh heavily in political and electoral choices.

It is counterproductive and to a point naïve to pretend that race is not a factor in our politics and that there is not a fair amount of polarization and alienation in our society.  This is why it is so important to continue the search for a solution to the problem of governance which cuts across the political and ethnic divide of our society.

Nor is failure to reach consensus on the way forward only a problem of ethnically divided societies. The difficulty faced by the Barack Obama Democratic led Party to pass important pieces of legislation is more a problem of class rather than race with the Republicans doing everything possible to frustrate the passage of pro-working class legislation such as health care reform, job creation and environmental legislation.

On the other hand, the relative ease with which legislation was passed to bail out the banking system and other bankrupt industries in particular the large multinational corporations cannot go unnoticed.

One key ingredient to any process of conciliation and healing must be to think big and not allow sectarian interests to overshadow the bigger picture of national advancement.

We have made significant progress in terms of parliamentary democracy and inclusive governance even as we seek to further deepen our democracy. The extent to which we succeed in this regard depends on our ability to transcend the narrow confines of race and politics and in the process put the interest of Guyana ahead of our own community or self interest.

We have made significant progress in terms of parliamentary democracy and inclusive governance even as we seek to further deepen our democracy. The extent to which we succeed in this regard depends on our ability to transcend the narrow confines of race and politics and in the process put the interest of Guyana ahead of our own community or self interest.