OUR democracy reaches full flowering tomorrow, when President Donald Ramotar faces Brigadier David Granger in that epic battle of our humble servant-leader versus the mighty military man, with former US President Jimmy Carter, that great global democrat who supervised us becoming a democratic nation in 1992, the observer referee. This epic electoral contest tests the character and moral mettle of both Guyanese men, and our nation votes for the leader who would lead us with the strength of character, depth of resolve and dynamic inner fortitude to take us to our place in the global 21st century world.
While President Ramotar stands on the solid ground of the ruling party’s firm democratic culture over the past quarter century, Brigadier Granger faces the stern challenge of reining in his internal party fanatics, in ensuring Guyana remains peaceful, with our pastoral calm intact and our paradisiac social environment smooth and harmonious.
The Brigadier walks tall as a military man, his army boots echoing a commanding, imposing national figure. We want him to shake off the military command-type, top-down leadership style of the army commander, and to take on the air of the intellectual, historian and media entrepreneur he is, to shed the type of leadership that commands men and instead wear the robe of service, humility of leadership, and an engaging, participatory approach to the national stage.
These two men rose to be our guides today, to hold the future of our nation in their hands, rising through their party ranks to today face off in the most powerful of national contests.
We saw on display over the past three years the character and conscience of these men. We witnessed them play their roles on the national stage, and tomorrow we choose which one we trust with the destiny of our nation.
The Brigadier led a troubled 10th Majority Parliament, which left a historical record of rows, strife and dissent. The Brigadier refused to apologise for the role of the party he leads, the People’s National Congress (PNC), in 28 years of rigged elections, which President Carter supervised coming to a fighting end in 1992. The Brigadier refused to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Ramotar in the work of the Rodney Commission to probe our most tragic historic wrong. The Brigadier did not lead his Majority Parliament to formulate national solutions, to cultivate our body politic into a cooperative, participatory, engaging, collaborative sensibleness. The Brigadier governs his political coalition, lacking any civic content, not reining in over-zealous fanatic party adherents who perpetuate an air of intimidation this elections season. The Brigadier left out women from the top leadership echelon of his coalition.
These facts define the Brigadier’s approach to the task of national leadership.
President Ramotar rose to noble heights with his amazing courage and strength of character to overcome vociferous opposition and 34 years of foot-dragging to convene the Presidential Commission to probe the demise of our outstanding national hero, Dr. Walter Rodney. That one act alone defines the President as a man of good conscience and depth of resolve, who loves natural justice. He faced off and won against immense Opposition outrage in convening the international Commission of Inquiry.
Ignoring such myopic minds as those who would sweep the past under the carpet of forgotten history, the President proceeded to work with what fate granted him, our Guyanese body politic fractured and tethering on strife, dissent and rows and Parliamentary determination to cause him to fail.
The President stood up and shook off such negatives to govern our macro-economic structure so well that we achieved every year of his Presidency the highest socio-economic growth rate in the Caribbean.
As President Carter travels across the Guyanese landscape observing our elections, the US democrat will be astounded at the transformation in development we’ve achieved under the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) since he visited here in 1992.
President Carter in 1992 would have encountered men like Hamilton Green in power, and would recall the absolute devastation that crippled Guyana then, when we ranked at the bottom of the socio-economic index of Caribbean development, with Haiti: gross poverty crippling us. President Carter now sees the massive transformation of our innovative national housing programme, the astonishing modernisation of Georgetown, despite Green’s grotesque, ugly mismanagement of the capital city. President Carter would see how we now drive new cars, old broken cars a thing of the past, our people well-dressed in designer clothing and sporting the latest smartphones, internet access connecting the most remote regions of our country. President Carter would see this kind of transformation we accomplished over the past two decades.
When he meets President Ramotar, he would see welcoming him a democratically elected Guyanese Head-of-State, rather than the rigged Presidency he encountered in the PNC administration he encountered before.
These two men face off in this epic contest, the Brigadier linking arms with that political veteran of fighting words, Moses Nagamootoo, for his leadership front; our Servant-leader forming a strong pact with Civic Guyanese community, in the person of outstanding career diplomat Elisabeth Harper.
President Ramotar joins President Carter in this common nobility, both being men and leaders of their nations with strong democratic roots, with democracy entrenched in their blood, with the democratic ideal their most cherished passion.
Brigadier Granger would do well to learn from them both, this military man willing to listen with humbleness of heart to experienced, passionate democratic souls on how to lead and function in a thriving democracy, how to cultivate our body politic as Opposition Leader, how to inculcate a spirit of cooperation, collaboration and participatory engagement in our nation.
The Guyanese Servant-leader, President Ramotar, who’s proved his mettle over the past three years, faces the Brigadier who’s challenged to marshal his forces to become the national political entity of responsible, harmonious leadership. Were the Brigadier to win his challenge for internal peace and calm in his camp, we would cultivate a Guyanese landscape for the next five years of peace, progress and prosperity. Whoever of these two we choose to govern us, the Guyanese nation wins, once we maintain the democratic ideal for which we so love President Carter.
By Shaun Michael Samaroo