Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 04, 2015 AFC Column, Features / Columnists
By Nigel Hughes
As 2014 concluded we inevitably reviewed our efforts over the past twelve months and asked ourselves, as we
do every year, what have we achieved and what could we have done differently. The year started with much less promise than its predecessor, since 2013 proved to be a year in which we as a Nation discovered several of our limitations.
In 2014 we discovered many attributes of our collective cultural dispositions which continued to be obstacles to the delivery of real equitable progress and growth in the country. We discovered that previously barely subliminal fears and prejudices were no longer bare or subliminal.
The embrace of democracy, which was much heralded in 1992, was abandoned in 2014 with the same fervor as it was embraced by the same protagonists who had previously referred to it with almost religious passion.
Among our several “discoveries” or perhaps confirmations was the fact that despite the “open heart surgery” which was performed on the Constitution between 2000 and 2003, it failed to deliver any meaningful participation of key stakeholders in the decision-making processes of the country.
Even more disappointing, but not entirely unexpected, was the fact that as a country we confirmed that we were unable to surmount our differences and incapable of finding solutions to our differences. Our ethnographic challenges remain un-confronted and continue to find fertile ground in the persistent inequitable distribution of wealth generated by an economy currently configured to reinforce this structural inequality.
The language and tone of our national conversations whether in parliament or without, challenged even the most robust optimists who held the view that Guyana was capable of simultaneously achieving unity, equity and progress.
With all our exposed structural and other deformities, we now face 2015 with uncertainty about the date and time of the most rudimentary element of democracy, a date for national and regional elections. Even the identification of this is subject to location of partial advantage.
It is perhaps time for us to discuss the real issues which have always confronted us and which we have never possessed the fortitude to admit and discuss.
Race, distribution of power, fair and inequitable economic opportunity and participation in the national productive sectors, both public and private, equitable participation in the Executive and other decision-making processes, Nationhood, and the development of a fair, equitable multicultural multi-ethnic society, in which all participants have a place in the sun.
Of course we have the option of pretending that all is well and all our difficulties can be sorted out by the mere holding of an election, but we must be prepared for the reality that the repetition of the same action in the hope of a different result exposes our grasp on reality.
Coalition, no coalition, minority Government, majority Government and alliances are all destined for failure – as our forty-eight plus years of “independence” have confirmed – unless we embark on the serious business of constitutional reform. Our faults lie not in our stars, but in our minds and hands.
The constitutional architecture of our potentially great nation, despite several advanced features, is flawed and inadequate for our unique circumstances and history. I believe that it is not beyond our collective ability to address most of the fundamental differences which have divided us for decades, some may say even longer.
Indicators of growth in the economy, growth and/or contraction in the GDP, housing figures, health data, corruption data, etc., have little impact in the absence of any information on how they impact each of our individual communities, because it is at the individual level that our several communities judge their own growth and development. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the pass rate for CSEC in Region 9, which stands at 25%, compared to better results in the rest of the country.
A new day will only come to Guyana when we start a national conversation on alternative approaches to equitable opportunity, equitable participation and equal access to all aspects of economic, political and social development.
We must find the courage to discuss the difficult issues of race, economics, power and personal and collective safety as a Nation.
The politics of alternative thinking must be embraced by all of us.
I believe that significant fundamental change in 2015 is not beyond our collective ability, but let us not wait for yet another crisis, which may be beyond our collective ability to contain, before we start to address the old cleavages which have divided us for so long.
May God bless our dear land.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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