BRIAN CHIN, son of Guyana’s cultural icon, Godfrey Chin, wrote an interesting letter in the print and online editions of the newspapers on Wednesday. He mentioned his father’s book, “Nostalgias.” This publication consisted of reminiscences of his father in Guyana of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
This book is a gem and I bought several copies for friends and relatives in the diaspora. I met Godfrey Chin once. It was a few years ago. He had an exhibition at the Umana Yana and I was there for another reason when Mr. Chin was setting up the exhibition. He had someone with him. I cannot recall who that person was but he was of Chinese ethnicity.
My impression of Mr. Chin was that he was a modest person, friendly and likeable and someone who loved his country. I did say to him that as someone who graduated from UG with a history degree, his book was a fantastic contribution to Guyanese history.
There is one line in the younger Chin’s letter that I would quote from for two reasons. I will offer the quote now then give the two reasons. “Ian and Godfrey were very different writers, but both demonstrated something valuable: one can examine a country’s shortcomings without rooting against the country itself.”
The Ian that Mr. Chin referred to is Ian Mc Donald who passed away recently. Mr. Mc Donald surprised the oceans of people who know him over the 70 years he traversed the soil of Guyana when he denounced the attempted rigging of the 2020 general election.
Mr. Mc Donald in his entire career avoided political comments. But what he saw happened in 2020 invoked what he naturally possessed – conscience and human decency.
The second reason for quoting Mr. Chin is because of the poignancy of his line, part of which I repeat here: |One can examine a country’s shortcomings without rooting against the country itself.”
This is the cancer that is eating away at the Guyanese society. Why it is so frightening is that it exists in corners that are vital to the philosophical fabric of the Guyanese society and those corners are rotting away.
What we have in Guyana since the 2020 elections are people who have abandoned their moral compass for insane anti-government hostility, and the shortcomings of the society are mistaken for the society itself, thus there are people in this country whose frenetic preoccupation is the rooting against Guyana itself.
I am not referring to the mainstream opposition. In every country of the world, the opposition is the same – we live with their daily outpouring against the government because we know that is their raison d’être.
It is in the realm of civil society, the media etc that we see the threat to Guyana’s moral and social fabric.
Mr. Chin noted that he lives outside. Can he contemplate in the countries he lives, there is a national human rights group that remained silent when the country’s national election was being tampered with and the process went on for five months?
Can Mr. Chin imagine in the countries where he lives, there is a national transparency organisation that remained invisible for five months when the country’s national election was being tampered with and over hundreds of thousands of voters stood to lose the value of their ballot?
I am absolutely positive that Mr. Chin knows the power of the media and because of that enormous power, the media is expected to be guided by profound responsibility and deep obligation to the society. Did Mr. Chin read the Stabroek News when it was in existence?
The paper looked like the daily publication of an opposition newspaper. Does Mr. Chin read the Kaieteur News and does he see the absolute hate in the newspaper for the government in which the newspaper has been rooting against Guyana itself.
Did Mr. Chin read a column in the Stabroek News titled “In The Diaspora” that for 18 years was a crusade against the Government of Guyana and the column was actually rooting against Guyana itself.
Did Mr. Chin read a published letter to the President in the newspapers signed by 42 Guyanese individuals and organisations in which they demanded the halt to oil production because it damages the environment and kills African people?
I ask Mr. Chin to reflect on how far we have gone in moral degeneracy when only one race of people was mentioned as victims of the fossil fuel industry. Mr. Chin has to know all humans could be affected.
This is the state of Guyana today. Mr. Chin was so graphic in that line that I end with mentioning it once more: “One can examine a country’s shortcomings without rooting against the country itself.”
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.
