WE suffer in this nation from a difference in perspectives. Nothing else divides us, cripples our social space and confuses us more than the fact that we look at the Guyanese society through two different lenses.

On the one hand, since 2011, the Opposition holds the view that it should wield political power over the democratically, freely and fairly elected Executive Branch of Government. When it fails to so do, it resorts to stifling development projects, including starving Amerindian communities of capital and denying students at the University of Guyana access to affordable tuition. Ask any Opposition leader to explain this astonishing foolishness, and he or she would resort to the blame game, scapegoating Government, citing vague allegations of various misdeeds.
Nobody says the Government is perfect. Government daily confronts problems of mammoth proportions and our nation cannot solve these unless we come together as one people. In fact, a lot of the existing problems existed for decades, including corruption and inefficiency. This Government is open, authentic and real, and, given time and cooperation, will transform the existing situation.
The Ramotar administration engineered a paradigm that seeks to create a national space of inclusivity and workability. But, like life itself, those who are arrogant, selfish and prideful should not expect the President to bow to them.
Government insists that the Opposition is causing Guyana to be almost ungovernable.
These two views clash with explosive impact, leaving the citizen in a state of bewilderment and confusion.
Of the two views, one would be inclined to sympathise with Government, for the simple reason that Government, in its own interest, would only want development to take place. It would be to Government’s detriment were it to stifle development in the country.
So, of the two opposing sides, any reasonable analysis would show that Government wants development to happen, while the Opposition sees its role as one of opposing, just for the sake of opposing.
Maybe our democracy is yet too immature for us to expect maturity from elected Members of Parliament. Maybe we’re still learning how to be a democratic nation.
The Opposition would jump up and shout with loud cussing that Government wanting development to happen is not true, claiming with little rational argument that Government is preventing the society from developing.
At the end of the day, a political party exists because it wants to exercise political, economic and social power over the society. So it would be ingenious for the Opposition parties to pretend that their motive is altruistic and without selfish ambition.
So here we are today, with a tragic face-off between a Government that must confront a host of serious challenges affecting the society, and an Opposition that celebrates with glee the crippling of the society’s socio-economic development.

How could we solve this crisis?
On the one hand, we see the Opposition resorting to threats to tear apart the social fabric, to disrupt the peace of this Christmas season, with street protests, and on the other hand, Government resorts to the prorogation of Parliament in its effort to circumvent the Opposition’s constant opposing.
Since 2011, the Guyanese society has suffered immense harm and damage. One would have thought a Minority Government would have injected sense and a new paradigm into our political system. Instead, Opposition leaders adopted an arrogant, prideful, chest-beating self-glory to trump their triumph at national polls.
Is this the way to deal with national affairs?
In the scenario where some of these leaders, influential and with a platform through the independent media, see it with rage and lust for vengeance for perceived wrongs to them in their original roles in the ruling Party, the irrationality we saw emanating from Parliament had nothing to do with Government’s performance, but simply with these leaders’ quest for personal revenge.
They seem oblivious to their own inner rage, and to the fact that they are destroying our nation’s progress.
The Government wants to govern. Any sensible person would admit that any Government wants to improve its image, to develop the society, and to win the hearts of the people. It’s human nature.
Government would be the first to admit that it faces immense challenges. The national brain drain is not an easy challenge to tackle. Across the land, Government has to live with the paucity of skills, lack of expertise, a low national Budget of less than US$1 billion, and the re-building of the society after the decades of collapse under the Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC). These are facts, the ‘what is so’ situation of today, the circumstances that limit us.
But the Guyanese nation is one of amazing possibility. We could become the breadbasket of the Caribbean, especially now that we’ve achieved Housing, Clothing and Feeding of ourselves.
Today, we stand positioned to become the great nation that we could become. Throughout our history, the world has looked at us astonished that we’ve got so much potential and natural resources, yet we fall so short.
Today, we are at a pivotal point. And we look to President Donald Ramotar to lead, to exercise the mandate he’s received through free and fair elections to govern the society for five years, or more, if he is elected to a second term of office.
We want the President to lead, to take decisive action, to exercise his powers according to the Constitution so that anarchy does not prevail, so that the Guyanese nation does not become ungovernable.
Should an Investigative Reporter inquire into the origin and process that the threat of the No-Confidence Motion became the talk of the country, the nation would see how pettiness and irrationality crippled the Guyana Parliament.
Since 2011, Guyana faced the immense problem of an unworkable national stage. The political quagmire, lack of the spirit of compromise, stubborn Opposition disrespect for Government, an ugly determination to refuse collaboration with and good faith in Government, and a national private media inconsiderately damaging the morale of citizens day in day out, fuelled a serious problem across the socio-economic space of this land.
Someone had to act, and act with courage and strength, to find a solution to this problem.
This is what President Ramotar did: he came up with a constitutional solution to break the cycle of demoralisation that was crippling our nation.
Now that the President stood up as a man, a leader, a defining father-figure, to initiate a space whereby we must collaborate, converse, cooperate and come together, the onus is on all of us, citizens and Opposition and Government leaders, to be responsible, and together work to heal this land.
We see even within the Opposition parties in-fighting, distrust and corrupt practices.
The Guyanese society has enormous challenges to overcome. And if we divide into two camps, each looking at the Guyanese nation through its own lens, refusing to see the other’s point of view, where would we end up?
Here we are today, with Parliament prorogued, and with street protests.
That’s a problem the citizen does not want to encounter. President Ramotar offers the nation the solution: let’s sit down and talk. Let’s consider each other’s perspectives, with full mutual respect and consideration, seeking how, together we would move the nation forward.

(By Shaun Michael Samaroo)