WE wonder at the ways of the Opposition, with their penchant for uninspiring leadership. Our nation waited in keen anticipation of a workable, solutions-oriented elections manifesto from their camp, only to hear it’s a war document, declaring “war” on six fronts.

Who advises these guys? Not seeing that their military-minded bent already generates consternation among the Guyanese population, they came out with language riddled with fighting, battle and, most demotivating and myopic, ‘war’.

Instead of declaring what they see Guyana being in 2020, they want to govern us in an abstract war of a rhetorical Guyanese fairytale, much as we witnessed in the 10th Parliament.

And that’s not the least of it. They’ve invented, incredibly, the wars they want to fight. They declared a warzone on dictatorship. Imagine that. With Guyana already entrenched as a democracy, with free and fair national and regional elections, for upwards of two and a half decades now, these guys see only a dictatorship, their mindset maybe a throwback to the dark era of the People’s National Congress (PNC). Do they love the word dictatorship so much?

Not seeing the visionary mindset of the elections manifesto of the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), which rolls out a long list of visionary projects and ground-breaking 21st century thinking, the Opposition stooped itself in rhetoric such as corruption, cronyism, dictatorship, wallowing with glee in its self-righteous nonsense.

Not maybe realising that their words stick to them and paint their public image, the Opposition folks push themselves into a corner, cementing in the Guyanese national mind the view that they lack a forward vision for our nation.

How must it feel to wake up every day with such words running through the mind: how depressing and demoralising and uninspiring. In analysing the words emanating out of the Opposition camp, we see exactly why our body politic remains such a nasty playing field. When you cultivate your mind on words like corruption, cronyism and dictatorship, your mind becomes a small, petty, angry little swirling vacuum going nowhere.

But their elections manifesto reflects what we’ve been seeing all along: listen to these guys on TV, read their newspaper letters, consume their online content in uninspiring blogs and videos and crass pictures, and see that the Opposition adamantly refuses to inspire, motivate or uplift themselves, muchless the Guyanese nation.

Instead they bend their backs to generate a social space filled with bad words, rhetoric of fighting and strife and dissent, underlined with an absolute disrespect for the freely and fairly elected Government.
This one thing, the absolute disrespect and disdain in which they hold their own democratically elected Government, shows the real mindset of these people. As one of them confessed in a national newspaper, they love the idea of anarchy, of a society under no restraint whatsoever. They relish a social space where they could vent their personal life issues beating up on the national psyche.

Unless the Opposition mends its ways, becoming proactive, solutions-oriented, respecting law and order and the hierarchy of authority in the land, they would remain in the wilderness, forever excusing their poor leadership with scapegoating, blaming and maligning sensible Guyanese.

Members of the Opposition appear on TV in Berbice, and show no shame, no restraint, in belittling the nation and telling Berbice Guyanese that they are stupid for voting for the PPP/C. One could sense in their trenchant words and angry outbursts that they constantly spoil for a fight, wanting to scream and shout and harass anyone not of their weird mentality.

We want a sensible Opposition that provides us with visionary, workable solutions, that takes to the mass and social media landscape to regale us with new thinking and fresh ideas and great thoughts, lifting us with their language and their rhetoric to new aspirations and motivating inspiration.
It pains us to analyse our Opposition and see only senseless social battering.

How frustrating it must be for President Donald Ramotar to know the nation he governs harbours an Opposition that refuses to work with him, that cannot muster the leadership wisdom and visionary foresight to partner with Government in developing our nation.

The Opposition camp frustrates our entire nation, including their constituencies. How could we get them to see that they attract spokespeople that only damage their image, that drag them down, that cause them to fall by the wayside? And they react to their demise with even angrier scapegoating and blaming, further refusing to see their shortcomings.

Opposition leaders would do well to read such works as Rene Girard’s theory of Scapegoating, and see how they damage the Guyanese society. They hold up our democratic Government as a villain in the land, denouncing President Ramotar, Bharrat Jagdeo, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, and anyone they fancy.
Any sensible Guyanese would know that Jagdeo, Ramotar, Nandlall and the swarm of supporters for Government and the ruling party are human beings, not perfect, but with deep love for this nation, and with massive positive contribution to the Guyanese society.

Yet, the Opposition never once admits to any positive contribution of President Ramotar, a servant-leader of the most humble of attitude, always thinking himself the least among his people, embracing Guyanese all across our country with an authentic love and genuine warmth of heart.

The Opposition portrays Jagdeo as a bad, bad man, when Jagdeo’s record of achievement, though not at all perfect, as he himself would readily admit, his success and progressing of our nation, stands head and shoulders above any Caribbean Head-of-State during his tenure as Guyana’s President.

The Opposition roots for the head of Attorney General Nandlall and Finance Minister Ashni Singh, never once acknowledging the sterling work these Guyana scholars contribute to our national development, when they could serve elsewhere for far more lucrative returns. Their self-sacrifice, dedication to the national cause of Law and Order and economic well-being, and forward vision, we should applaud and appreciate.
Our nation suffers a terrible brain drain, a world record dearth of skills and expertise, and is only now starting to rebuild our human resource asset base. So we should thank the men and women who give us their human capital, their talents and expertise and skills and thinking, in the cause of national development.

This kind of respectful, sensible, balanced, reasonable outlook towards our leaders would go a far way in creating a Guyanese social landscape, whereby citizens would find a fertile and ready social atmosphere for our personal development.

The Opposition elections manifesto shows how far removed the Opposition camp remains from such a playing field, how irrational, unbalanced, prejudiced and lacking in objective thinking Opposition leaders set out to make themselves.

While we need the work of leaders like Anand Goolsarran and Clive Thomas and Henry Jeffrey and so on, we want to generate a Guyanese nation where the Opposition sees itself not as existing for the sake of opposing national development and working against the development of the Guyanese nation, but that knows its role is to work with the Government of the day to move us forward.

For this, they’ve got to ditch and eradicate the harsh, plosive rhetoric that defines them as anything but positive, inspiring, motivating and development, solutions-oriented.

 
By Shaun Michael Samaroo

How must it feel to wake up every day with such words running through the mind: how depressing and demoralising and uninspiring. In analysing the words emanating out of the Opposition camp, we see exactly why our body politic remains such a nasty playing field. When you cultivate your mind on words like corruption, cronyism and dictatorship, your mind becomes a small, petty, angry little swirling vacuum going nowhere.