DEMOCRACY means a smooth working relationship between our freely and fairly elected Government, and the citizens of this nation. We’ve got to inculcate and cultivate that relationship into a concrete reality in every nook and cranny of this society. Guyanese want to know their Government cares for them. The Opposition wants Guyanese to hate their own Government, not conscious that this strategy shows their serious miscalculation of human nature.We’ve achieved spectacular progress in this society. Guyanese move about in nice cars, live in lavish, stylish homes, dress with fashion and class, and eat abundant fresh food.
We know we’re developing and moving up in life. Now we travel to America and return, sightseeing the skyscrapers of New York, but embracing our lifestyle close to nature, basking under the tropical Guyanese sun, enjoying the natural environment and the outdoors and the fresh, unpolluted air and the atmosphere of freedom, fairness and equal opportunity we today enjoy.
We know Government works hard to maintain our democratic ideals and to ensure our macro-economic and social structures and systems function smoothly, that Government makes sure never again we would suffer from grotesque misapplication of those crucial ideas of democracy and development.
Government repairs what was broken, what had fallen apart, with 1,000 school buildings now spanking new and modern, with hospitals and roads and State buildings in firm shape.
Only at City Hall in Georgetown, where that fossilized Hamilton Green, a politician who managed this nation during the period of our ugly collapse, only there where he sits like an empty emperor, do we today see a public building falling apart. And Minister of Culture Dr Frank Anthony is moving to ignore such a figure, to renovate and rebuild that historic structure.
So we see constant progressing, we’re living as a peaceful people, we’re propelling our way forward, moving into the global community of 21st century nations.

EUPHORIC EXCITEMENT
Guyanese know this. We feel the pulse of who we are today, the euphoric excitement, the inspiring adrenalin, as we develop very fast.
President Donald Ramotar transforms the image of the Guyanese Government with his open, engaging, humble style of leadership. The President encourages personal responsibility and individual initiative. In our democracy, this makes for the ideal atmosphere in the land, where citizens employ an enterprising spirit in creating the life we want, in realising that our society today works as a meritocracy, whereby any citizen, through hard work and discipline and dedicated application, could achieve the Guyana dream of owning his own well-furnished home, educating himself , living a full 21st century lifestyle.
Not even the most grotesque and ugly of Opposition malcontents could deny that we’re here today, that we’ve come this far on the journey to our potential as a world class society.
But, as is prone with human society, nothing’s ever perfect. Utopia is but a mirage on the distant horizon, and Opposition folks who tout a perfect, utopian Guyanese society should face their dishonesty, because they themselves could not deliver that promise to the Guyanese people.
Before we won back free and fair elections, before we regained our democratic soul, we saw how crippled our society became. We knew that after we restored democracy and kicked out the dictators we would face a hard, long road to rebuild the internal macro structures and systems upon which any modern society functions.
We’ve got a lot of it done, not much of it visible to the citizen. People don’t see the foundation systems and structures, the cornerstone, of our society, as much of this lies hidden under bureaucratic, mundane State work.
We depend on the media to tell the story of Government, to relate to us the tireless work of leaders like Head of the Public Service, Dr. Roger Luncheon, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Youth, Sport and Culture Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, and several others who are progressive and visionary and forward-thinking, who toil through long hours to overcome the frustrating national human resource capital pool to bring us to where we are today.
We depend on the frontline workers and community leaders and regional administrators and Public Servants who interface with the Guyanese public, with the citizens of this land, to build that smooth relationship between our democratic State and our developing citizens.
And in this we see, unfortunately, a continuing breakdown. We’re far from perfect, and Government leaders are the first to stand up and tell citizens that we’re a work in progress.
The most crucial imperfection we face today is this interfacing of Government with the society, in that the State employees and community leaders who represent Government to the people all too often treat citizens with disdain, impatience and a callous disregard for their small, little concerns.

SOLVING THE PROBLEM
Were we to solve this crisis, which finds root and longevity in those days when party paramountcy under the dictatorship regime of the People’s National Congress (PNC) installed incompetent, ill-trained card-carrying party members into the Public Service, were we to solve this long-standing problem, we would radically transform how Guyanese citizens relate with their Government.
Opposition folks who refuse to think through this society’s problems with an open mind foment the problem, because they bandy around the vague term of “government” to scapegoat and verbally attack persons within Government who they hate and want revenge on and seek vengeance against.
So they ignore what’s really going on, in their blinded quest for bringing down the freely and fairly elected Government of the Guyanese people.
Making this scenario worse is the frontline managers and community leaders who represent Government to the people, for lots of them see their position as a privilege rather than an opportunity to look citizens in the eye, cultivate an open and authentic and real relationship, and serve the public with only the public good in mind.
With a rampant Opposition gleefully descending on this weakness of our society, taking advantage of pockets of citizen discontent to opportunistically seek their own aggrandisement, citizens face a real problem, feeling demoralised and unmotivated.
It’s human nature that Guyanese citizens want to feel significant, knowing that high Government cares for each one of us, that each voice is important, that each story forms the corporate Guyanese identity. All we ask is that those we interface with respect us, see us and not look at us with a blank stare, listen to our issues and our small little concerns, show us that we’re each important and valuable in this nation.
Citizens encountering President Ramotar and the progressive, open-minded Ministers of Government walk away with a renewed sense of their value, their importance. Maybe this is why President Ramotar rose to become Chief Citizen of the Guyanese nation. We see how engaging he is, how he pays attention to people talking to him, how he focuses on the citizen, that one soul, seeking him out as he goes across the country campaigning.
We see the same attitude from those Ministers and Public Servants who are open-minded and real in their leadership, who walk with their hearts on their sleeve, and authentically talk to citizens.
Human relations calls for certain essential life skills, simple things like paying attention to the one we’re talking to or who engages us, listening for the heart cry of the person, seeing the person as a human being with feelings and emotions and hurts and pains and dreams and aspirations.

EACH CITIZEN VALUABLE
Such is our nation, a people made up of individual stories, personal concerns and human interests, and each citizen sees himself or herself as the most important person in the world. All Guyanese want is that, in their interfacing with their own Government, they would feel how important their voice is, their vote is, their story is, in the grand design of the living, dynamic Guyanese story.
We can’t take ourselves for granted, even the smallest and humblest among us. We’re all important, vital to the heartbeat and pulse of this society.
It’s absolutely imperative that Government trains its frontline workers, its community interfacing folks, in the art of human relations, in the simple essential life skills of dealing with people, of making each and every Guyanese feel important and worthy and valuable.
Such a national attitude would do wonders in building the smooth relationship between our free and fair Government, and the Guyanese citizens we serve, thus eradicating a lot of the stress and frustration and unfortunately misguided negative emotion people feel towards their Government.
It’s a simple thing, this profound insight, that all we need is a nation-wide cadre of frontline, interfacing community leaders who employ essential life skills of human relations in building that necessary smooth Government-people relationship.