A handful of words with an ominous ring

Apr 09, 2020 Editorial

“Not going to end well…” There is an ominous ring to the media headlines, in those less than a handful of words. What do we intend to do about them, if anybody listens or cares about what older brother said? To repeat for the umpteenth time, this society is not in a good place at all, it is in a very bad place.
When the few Guyanese, who take not a narrow party or racial view of how things should be, but dare to articulate a broad national vision, they are either studiously ignored or shouted out of existence by the massed multitudes on both sides of the divide.
What is sad is that we are not in a healthy place that could contribute to the social tranquility so urgently required here. It is that degree of tranquility which encourages communication across the divide; that facilitates a merging of minds on what needs to be carved out, how those should be made to emerge, and who should have a place and hand; and that powers towards any other place but to that tragic terminal where we appear to be bent on arriving.
Nobody is listening, be they leaders or be they the bulk of supporters, because everyone’s mind is made up, there is no interest. We, regardless of how neutral or independent is the claim, are seen as too close to, or too embedded in, the local problem to be able to be part of any solution.
Though, there is disagreement with such thinking, this much cannot be denied: There is neither courtesy nor time nor room allowed for any accommodation of the necessary conversations about what should be avoided at all costs, in the interests of the nation, and towards what could be promising and uplifting for it and all of its peoples.
But now, from the sagacity and civility of distance, an authoritative outsider, a neighbour, and foreigner all rolled into one, a highly ranking one, has spoken.
Since he has spoken very frankly and very touchingly, there may be some pausing and a little listening. This is not because he is regarded as the wisest of all. Rather, it is due to his own leadership example, and the comparatively more reasonable social state prevailing in the society over which he is the chief political steward.
And in a nutshell that is Dr. Keith Rowley, the Hon. Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who took it upon himself to sound a warning, a timely and very pointed one, to the powers and peoples of Guyana, a member Caricom state. Whatever else he may be, PM Rowley is certainly wiser, more mature, more responsible than any of his political peers and brethren here in Guyana.
The prime minister did not pull any punches, which is evidenced and emphasized in the caption, “2020 Elections fiasco… TT Prime Minister disappointed with state of affairs in Guyana” (KN April 5).
A full-fledged, furious, and endless fiasco, it has been, with no end in sight, which has all the hallmarks of the tragic coursing below the surface. This Trinidadian leader is “so very concerned about the state of affairs in Guyana” that he takes the time to have daily conversations with the current chair of Caricom, PM Mottley of Barbados.
No Guyanese aware of the situation in Guyana needs an introduction to PM Mia Mottley, and her own efforts and positions made public on where things are in Guyana. But here it is that we have two other national leaders spending time to talk about us Guyanese, and we are not engaged in anything near to what they are sacrificing, their precious time, nothing at all.
We at this paper have tried time and time again, by ringing loud warning bells, without getting anywhere. We intend to keep ringing those bells, if only to arrest the rush of the thinking that leads to where Dr. Rowley warned, which is that he is getting “a feeling that this is not going to end well.” Truer words have not been said.
As Dr. Rowley said, he hopes to be wrong. We also hope that his words are not prophetic. There would be no turning back.

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