OP:ED – Love and Peace

Feb 02, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – The plea for “love and peace” inside Guyana’s parliament is a first.  If there were any such sprinklings of thinking harboured before by a few from either side of the rancorous, savaging, divide in the People’s House, those have all vanished like straw rushed along by a fierce wind.  Love and peace have been the constant foundations of religious teachings, sometimes commandments; both can be conveniently put to use by nifty political leaders, but the two are now vacant in the schemes of most Guyanese, whether inside or outside of parliament. The riches of oil introduce this kind of wretchedness, this national dreadfulness.  The few who speak to either one are mocked for untimeliness and the foolishness of their callings, their yearnings for a more tolerant, understanding Guyana.

GHK Lall

It is delightful that a local possessing of several helpful mixtures issued the exhortation for “love and peace.” She is a mixture of homegrown origins, the enticing flavour of a foreign address, and with significant international fame, completing a rather flamboyant portrait.  Whoever makes a call for “love and peace” in parliament, in Guyana, and gains some level of traction, some following, has my nod of thanks. A few of us have tried to no avail; victims of what familiarity brings, plus that one about messengers delivering unwanted scrolls not being welcomed, not even in their own homeland by their own.  There is resonance in that for me.

“Love and peace” here, can we get it?  Are we willing to do what it takes to draw closer than where we are currently? To some state that could be termed a Guyana of ‘oneness’?  The President says that he has that in mind, but my doubts accumulate about both his mind, and whatever he says on not just that vision claimed, but on most things nowadays.  When attitudes and actions from the top contradict what s offered in pails of platitudes about one this or one that, then Guyanese are not tightening their grip on an elusive oneness.  They are drifting from, if not destroying any hope of, what is asserted to be close to the heart.

The President is on record that he envisions something called ‘One Guyana.’  As monitored by me, the President has compiled a record of saying that he stands for numerous things that could be supremely beneficial to the citizens of this country, but then being totally pleased with himself to exist in an altogether different universe.  It is more than a parallel track, but of what batters first, then buries, the elements he held out as his leadership truths. I remind my fellows of transparency, accountability, and unity.  How quickly he forgot!  How much the blood rushed from his head, leading to sustained memory loss, is still a work in progress.  If what Guyana’s President (and his comrades) are doing were a song, it would be one obscene street ditty.

But love and peace it is, and in the National Assembly of all places.  Love and peace have come to mean so much of what cannot be digested in this country, in its parliament, for people can get sick just from anticipating the mere expression.  I don’t pretend to have any sophisticated concepts or papers about how much love and peace can matter to this ruptured and wrenched land, but I still do know a few little things, which I have the audacity to put in the public domain.

Where there is love, only some meaningful degree of it, then it is almost a given that peace that is true and treasured follows.  For when there is love and peace, then brotherhood and togetherness become achievable, maybe even inseparable.  If that sounds peculiarly like some camouflaged rendition of reconciliation and some form of union, I confess to being guilty.  Taking this to an upper layer, love and peace opens the door to honest conversation that is confident of any outcome, including the resolution of such longstanding mysteries to Guyanese like truth and justice.

Since there is no fear of where any of this may lead, I can speak and write, assert and argue, that the effort would be worthwhile, for then what are we left with as a proxy guiding body?  Foreign interveners and mediators?  Part time foreign social workers operating in the local political arena?  External pacifiers smoothing domestic bruises, while their eyes latch onto our family prizes?  Speaking for myself, the preference is to do what we have never really given the fullest of full chances.  Try.  Try and fail and fall, but still having the courage to stand up and restart.

We don’t and we are at the mercy of foreign predators, as is unfolding like some slow-motion National Geographic picture right before our eyes, and pointing to the cash carnage already happening.  I disbelieve lots about Guyanese, but this I can’t believe. Meaning, we prefer foreigners prospering as divisions drain us, and impoverish us.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

• GHK Lall