When we have individuals who put Guyana before themselves, we will see I don't believe we have leaders today who have what it takes to make Guyana like when it was the bread basket of the Caribbean.
Racism in Guyana isnt of the communal type that is visible in other countries. I remember once being among Indians, some of whom were standing next to me, saying some of the most vile things about black people. They didnt aim that attitude towards me, and were quite receptive.
Racism in Guyana is about ethnic insecurity. The notion that the nation is divided into 2 ethnically separate groups of elites. There is a highly developed fear that fairness cannot be expected and that an unfair access to opportunity can be expected, with rewards being divided by race.
Ironically a similar fear is that the ethnic group might sell out ITS OWN GRASS ROOTS to curry favor with the other side. Africans thought that Hoyte sold out to Indians, and many Indians today think that the PPP sells them out to blacks.
I maintain that;
1. we need to acknowledge that this ethnic insecurity exists.
2. It is not necessarily the same as it was in the early 60s.
3. we need to determine why it exists in the 21st century.
4. we need to develop solutions to allow people to feel that the system with be fair.
This discussion CANNOT be led by politicans. The BIGGEST problem that Guyana has, unlike TRinidad, is that we lack powerful civic institution whuch are independent of the political set up. So Guyanese are over reliant on politicians to solve their problems. This is why we have a deeper ethnic divide than does Trinidad, and why our politics is sicker.
Eric Williams COULD NOT get away with what Burnham did, in the interests of "protecting" his African base.
Kamla CANNOT get away with what Jagdeo/Ramotar get away with, because she knows that Tdad has a large SWING vote, who vote on issues rather than race!
So Trinidad functions better even though historically it was MORE CORRUPT than Guyana was, at least before the Jagdeo scandal. Even in the 50s and 60s Trinis spoke of "bobol" to refer to corruption. Guyanese didnt even know that serious corruption was an impediment to growth.