WHAT would have been Nelson Mandela’s 104th birthday came and passed on Monday with not a word from those who conveniently invoke his memory.
Born on July 18, 1918, Mandela died on December 5, 2013 and would have been 104 this year.

The United Nations General Assembly designated July 18 as Nelson Mandela Day in 2010 and since then the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the UN have ensured that the world remembers the iconic South African leader every year, by selecting a theme reflecting his aspirations and achievements.

This year, the focus is on Food Security and Climate Change with the theme: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” – which encompasses a common global hope for all and by all, in every community, village, town, region and province – and which also coincides with Guyana’s responsibility for ensuring that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) can survive its Food Security ambitions, including reduction of the region’s food-import bill by 25 per cent by the end of 2025.

Mandela’s own teachings on self-reliance and independence from colonial thinking is very consistent with Caribbean musical icon Bob Marley’s everlasting invitation to people of African descent everywhere to “emancipate” themselves from “mental slavery.”

But it’s a pity Mandela’s memory only resonates with those who genuinely accept his contribution to the world better understanding that no system based on dishonesty will ever prosper forever.
It is a matter of historical record that the Guyana opposition, slightly differently clothed in 1998, was not at all pleased with the wise counsel for peaceful solution to the country’s political problems that Mandela offered at that year’s CARICOM Summit in Saint Lucia, where Guyana was represented by President Janet Jagan and the Opposition by Desmond Hoyte.

That regional summit, with Mandela as special guest, included a sideline meeting with President (Mrs) Jagan and Mr Hoyte, which blessed the mechanism that led to the Herdmanston Accord negotiated by the region’s leaders, including Jamaica’s then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and CARICOM Chairman Prime Minister, Dr Kenny Anthony.

Back then, Mandela was a bad taste in the Guyana opposition’s mouth, never mind members daily driving along Mandela Avenue and their occasional and selective lip-service paid to African causes.
Leading to Nelson Mandela Day, the usual suspects were more interested in making false claims for equal treatment as Guyana’s First People, but through application of arithmetic formulae they claim to be wrong, but would consider right if applied as they prescribe.

Mandela led South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), which has survived over 100 years, thanks in great part to its ability to accommodate citizens of all races genuinely committed to change, not only for the Black majority, but for all South Africans.

Joe Slovo, a white man, led ‘Umkhonto We Sizwe’, the ANC’s military wing that led the armed struggle, while Mandela and other ANC leaders were in prison.
Much has changed in South Africa since Mandela died nine years ago. Today, President Cyril Ramaphosa, a former trade unionist, is an acknowledged billionaire. But even while all the ANC’s and Mandela’s objectives haven’t been achieved after more than a quarter of a century in office, the continent’s richest nation continues to evolve under majority rule, as South Africans continue to accept the ANC is the only party really serving their interests.

Mandela’s positions on the necessity for global Food Security and Climate Change transcended Africa’s borders and today resonate more than ever in Guyana and CARICOM and achievement of set targets will help keep his memory as alive in people’s consciousness as it obviously is, even though apparently erased from the memory of those who seem to never have learned Mandala’s lessons.

Guyana continues to stand in support and defence of the ANC and President Ramaphosa in their continuing efforts to realise Mandela’s dreams and aspirations and this administration will certainly ensure it’s a rock-hard undertaking that will never depend on negotiated opposition support.

When he had to, Mandela stood by South Africa’s all-white rugby team for its dominance of the game and equally condemned those from his ranks who only measured progress in racial terms; and likewise, this PPP/C administration, like its predecessors since 1992, will ensure that all Guyanese benefit from the nation’s new-found wealth, unlike those who seek to rewrite history and falsify truth to qualify for and secure advantages they still deny other Guyanese are equally due.

But Mandela won’t turn in his grave, as he faced worse scenarios, and just as how the ANC has survived 110 years since its founding in 1912 to this day, so has the PPP survived the last 76 years since its inception in 1946, against all odds; and likewise, Nelson Mandela’s spirit will continue to live the world over, year after year, irrespective of who chooses to forget by engaging in selective amnesia.