Dear Editor,
A FEW days after Muslims celebrated the festival of Eid marking the end of Ramadan — the lunar month of fasting, prayers and charity — His Excellency Dr Irfaan Ali observed the occasion under a tent at State House.

The President’s guests included Hindus, Christians, Muslims, civil servants and foreign diplomats. In short, it was a multi-faith gathering and perhaps there were many in attendance who may not necessarily adhere to any faith in particular.

His was a timely, candid and eloquent message that is anchored in both faith and civic duty. President Ali weaved together the strands of his faith — Islam in his case — and his civic duty as guardian of his country into one seamless fabric.

Dr Ali’s speech resonated with me and I believe it should be amplified because it was a clear articulation of an inclusive vision universal in scope and depth, and one that desires prosperity and financial security for all Guyanese.

Vision statements by political leaders have gravitas, particularly when the architects of “doom and gloom” such as Dr Damien King, an economist at the University of the West Indies, whose prediction in March of this year that Guyana will suffer from a “resource curse” due to the weakness of its institutions, made headlines in local newspapers.

Members of the leadership of the WPA and the PNC too have made their vision of a violent and racially divided Guyana abundantly clear.

I imagine that no one from Transparency International was under the President’s tent that evening to take notes or score points when ranking Guyana on its index of countries seeking to curb corruption and injustice.

Still, there is an opportunity for them to join an estimated 25,000 people who registered as having viewed the President’s Eid celebration on social media.

Lest he be accused of double-speak, perhaps even hypocrisy, Dr Ali addressed members of his own faith community directly, telling them that “if you believe you are a part of the teachings of Islam and you harbour ill-feelings, hate and racism in your heart, unfortunately that does not align itself with the teachings of Islam.”

“We believe strongly in religious values and those values do not allow us to hate each other,” President Ali said.

Addressing all Guyanese, he said, “You can’t build a prosperous nation without unity and unity is impossible without peace, justice and security for all.

“Peace can never be achieved if as individuals, and as a community, as a country, we do not demonstrate our holistic understanding and action in relation to achieving peace,” Dr Ali said.

“We have a ‘duty’ (there is that word again) in our activism (whether driven by faith or civic duty) to promote what is right, to promote what is just and to ensure that those who seek to instill hate, to use diversity to promote hate, those who seek to exploit the richness of our diversity as a tool to ensure that they become guided, we must pray for them,” the President said.

“Pray for them.” That comment made me smile. There it was in one simple phrase, a remarkable demonstration of his faith. Stunningly simple and yet profound — a robust meshing of faith and civic duty.

“We must pray for them,” President Ali said. He did not say we must fight them, duke it out in the streets, nor did he say antagonize them, or punish them, but rather, “pray for them,” i.e. supplicate to God by whichever name we Guyanese call on Him, for their guidance.

“Guyana’s rich diversity,” President Ali said, “is not a tool, but an advantage that has been given to us as a country to demonstrate to the rest of the world how we can promote peace, how we can live in peace, how we can advance peace and how we can develop a global model for unity (in diversity).”

Yours sincerely,
Nazim Baksh.