MY first wish as I watched my coin sinking into the water is that Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali be given another five-year term to complete a truly great legacy. If he is given another five years, I believe, given his unique style and his nationalist commitment, his name will overrun the two historical Leviathans – Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham.

Next as my coin lay at the bottom of the fountain, I wished for the Guyanese people to finally do the mentally right thing, the psychologically proper thing, and the philosophically correct thing in 2025 – cast your vote based on the issues in the life of your country and turn a completely blind eye to the ethnicity of the contestants.

If I had a vote in the UK last year, Mr. Rishi Sunak, an Indian like me would not have been on my mind at all. He would not have gotten my vote in preference to three White men in the following order – George Galloway, Jeremy Corbin and Keith Starmer. All three of these White politicians are better than Sunak.

If I had a vote in the American presidential election, Kamala Harris who has Indian blood like me and Jamaican blood which makes her genetically Caribbean, would not have even featured on my list.
I would have voted for a White woman, Jill Stein of the Green Party. Mr. Sunak and Ms. Harris lost because in the UK and the US, a substantial amount non-white folks did not vote for them and rightly so.
Voting for issues was an act that characterised the Indian election last year. Hindu candidates from the ruling party appealed to religious instincts but were rejected in many parts of the Hindu heartland. In those areas, the economy and unemployment were the driving force.
We are in an election year and the Guyanese people cannot be so blind that they cannot distinguish between a wilted rose and a fresh pick. Here I am referring to the Alliance For Change.

This is one of the world’s most morally empty organisations to ever walk along a political road. I earnestly wish in my heart, soul and mind that the Guyanese people ostracise it. This is a truly detestable organism that the electorate should bury in the 2025 election.
I tossed another coin and I made a wish that in 2025 we will see the University of Guyana being born again. There is no other country in the world where the university is so invisible as in Guyana.

I recommend to the Guyana Government a change to the university’s statutes whereby all lecturers must write a public letter either in the printed media or online version twice a year on an issue relating to something in or out of Guyana.
Every lecturer must hold two public symposia each year outside of the university, maybe at City Hall or a public school, the topic being on anything that Guyanese can learn from. These lecturers are paid from the public purse and they must contribute to the pool of knowledge for the benefit of the next generation. These academics’ mouths are so silent you want to think they are stitched up.

We are into the 2025 budget; UG lecturers should offer the society their analyses. We are in the throes of a controversy to renegotiate or not the EXXON contract. UG lecturers must offer their views. We have a public debate on biometrics, but not one UG lecturer has offered an argument for or against.
For almost 40 years, intellectual stimulation dried up at UG. This rut should not be allowed to continue. These academics are qualified to speak on the major issues that canopy this country but for over 40 years they have refused to share a public opinion so an intellectual climate could be generated. This charade must stop in 2025.

I tossed a third coin. My last wish is that the government assembly, a talented team in 2025 to respond to the appalling anti-government propaganda that is sprouted in the mainstream press and in social media each day.
There is no other debate that is uglier and stinker that the advocacy that small, vulnerable Guyana in a world of rampaging big powers that Guyana must compel EXXON to the board room to renegotiate the contract. This aridity and mediocrity are so ugly and vulgar that each time it shows its presence, the team must confront it and when this is done, knowledge is gained.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.