Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 14, 2019 Letters
I have been following the trend of letters relative to our politics which seem to want to focus on the coming elections due on March 2nd, 2020.
I have been on the political “front line” for 65 years and have been a candidate of T.U.F for 10 elections; it means that I have been knocking on the door of Parliament for the past 50 years (10 elections – 5 years apart).
Having my name on the T.U.F “candidates’ list” does not mean that I was looking for an ‘identity’ through politics. I already had and have an identity that no parliamentarian has, and that is that I can stop and am stopped on the streets, roads and highways of my country by members of the public from all political persuasions and affiliations, to have “road talks” on subjects and issues that affect this land of mine and yours.
I ride a bike, and that is one of the things that make me approachable because I meet my fellow Guyanese on their turf.
Let us take a look at a “political comparison” of the past and present. Where are the programmes that we of long ago politics were accustomed to? Today it is all about the personalities.
Recently reading in one of the daily papers, someone had referred to the political budget which was implemented by the P.P.P in the early 60’s; it was entitled the “Kaldor Budget” and it was implemented by the P.P.P. This budget was written by a “Hungarian Marxist” named Nicholas Kaldor and the P.P.P being Marxist at the time had this “Hungarian” write a budget for this country, though he never put foot on our country’s soil.
At the time, Cheddi Jagan’s political advisor was another “Marxist” Jack Kelshall, a Trinidadian. I was there and was a participant on the streets, taking tear gas to have that communist budget withdrawn; eventually the P.P.P had to withdraw that budget.
Why all this is being said is to show you readers how far I have come from. I am not dependent on any technology to give me answers. I am 80 years of age and my “computer” is my mental ability to remember some of the happenings of this land of mine.
Sixty years after the “Kaldor Budget”, I think and feel we must move on; there is so much light ahead in the tunnel for our country. We must all be involved as we will all be consumed if we do not have “togetherness” – complete political togetherness – and let “power” become dormant in our activities.
The P.P.P in the 60’s thought that the “Kaldor Budget” was the right thing for Guyana. We who fought against the “Kaldor Budget” thought that it would have been harmful for Guyana and our people. We from both sides of the political divide were facing and dealing with issues and not personalities as today’s politics is doing.
Let us make preparations from our gains for the next two generations. Let us give our children something to be proud of 40 years from now, where they can as adults, say that our politicians of 40 years ago bent over backwards and made political sacrifices in 2020, and for that they will be benefitting.
I did go into Parliament in the early 90’s heading a T.U.F delegation which included Mansoor Nadir, Malcolm DeFreitas, Dennis Lee and others. The occasion was to gather around Parliament tables and give our party’s view on the political situation of that era. The “jurist” was Sir Paul Scoon, a British M.P who was doing a research on the situation at the time. The P.P.P and the P.N.C (not today’s P.N.C) also had the opportunity to meet with this Jurist. Gail, Donald, we must let our young people know how it was at that time.
Sincerely
Murtland “Slugger” Williams
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