ONE HUGE STEP TOWARDS REAL NATIONAL UNITY!
The annals of Guyana’s history may have begun with the re-discovery of these lands by the Portuguese voyager Christopher Columbus. It led to colonization then African slavery which evolved over time to the Cuffy-led Berbice Slave Rebellion and subsequently progressed to the end of indentureship. Thereafter, we navigated through colonisation and laboured to independence from colonial rule which occurred in 1966, just under 50 years ago. Then came the crowning achievement – Guyana’s rise to sovereign Republican status in February 1970. In 1992 we witnessed the restoration of democratic elections which was followed almost two decades later by the landmark national elections of 2011. This was followed by a turbulent three (3) years that brought about the prorogation of the 10th Parliament in October 2014, an event unprecedented in this part of the world. The people of Guyana through their preferred representatives, demanded and got what history will record as the Cummingsburg Accord. This is a monumental landmark that creates the canvas upon which the future of Guyana will be painted … in broad strokes and vivid colour. This is the Guyana we envision. The Cummingsburg Accord represents what the people want the most, i.e. to see all parties who are invested in removing this beautiful country from the dangerous precipice over which it totters, coming together to work in unity for the growth and advancement of all of our people in all of their communities. Guyana, unquestionably, has commenced a much anticipated phase of social and political transformation. We are in the process of moving from a grossly lop-sided, unjust system of winner-takes-all to one of inclusive governance. We are in the process of creating the wherewithal to involve Guyanese from every strata, from every political persuasion, from every religion, every administrative region, every Guyanese culture in an all-encompassing journey to return this nation to the status it used to enjoy long ago, i.e. being the true Breadbasket of the Caribbean and becoming once more a nation with the most caring, hospitable people and boasting an enviable, luscious Garden City. THE TIME IS NOW for us to take charge of our future. For too long we have entrusted it into the hands of people who executed an agenda that did not include us or our wellbeing. The changes that we have seen taking place in recent weeks have been a long time coming, but come they will! On Wednesday 4th March, 2015, the Grand Savannah Suite of the Guyana Pegasus was virtually pulsing with expectation. The occasion was the official launch of the Unity party, APNU+AFC, which is made up of the best talents and the best cerebral fortitude that has been missing from the governmental formula for far too long. The process to really unite the best of Guyana in order to create the environment to attract the Best that Guyana could offer began in earnest when the Alliance for Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) acceded to the people’s will and generated the aforementioned Cummingsburg Accord that both parties signed on Saturday 14th February, 2015. We produce here excerpts from the Call to Unity made by Prime Ministerial Candidate, the venerable Moses Nagamootoo. “This occasion humbles me. Today, we are making another giant step towards national reconciliation. This event, like that of February 14, will be remembered in the new pages of our history. Our grand-children and their off-spring would find it under the subject index “Unity”. Guyana objectively needs unity, and when many Guyanese saw the outcome of the talks between APNU and AFC, they responded: “It is high time!” It is time that we give meaning to the sacrifices and struggles of our people, and of the generations who lived in the colony (British Guiana) before Independence. Since 1955, a single occurrence called “the split” had deeply wounded our Guyanese civilization. It occasioned political and ethnic division but today, after 60 years, we are taking a conscious step to put the healing balm on the scars of that division. Today, we hold out a new promise to meaningfully address the legacy of ethnic insecurity in Guyana. The restoration of electoral democracy in 1992 started a hopeful process, but it did not bring healing. After a few years, it saw a new cycle of autocratic, one-party rule. The promise of 1992 faded then became distorted in a frenzy of sleaze, corruption and complicity in criminal enterprises. The gang of betrayers derailed our democracy. In the elections of 2011, the people of Guyana condemned the pseudo-leaders to minority status and though they tried to duck and dodge, eventually they buckled under pressure (and called early elections). Today, there is need for a new direction of our still fledgling democracy. There is need to inject life into our decaying political system, and transform our governance model by ending “winner-takes-all politics”, by taking Guyana along the road to multi-party, multi-ethnic, national rule. The APNU+AFC alliance is that new beginning! Our intention is to create a truly inclusive democracy not only of political parties but civil society as well. It will be, as it has been, a bumpy road to the ‘Promised Land’, but we will not be daunted; we will not be intimidated. We shall defeat the monster of racism; we shall overcome the campaign of fear. On March 4, 1933 – 82 years ago – at his inauguration as the President of the United States of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt stated famously: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But, today, today, we in Guyana have unity within our grasp. There is nothing to fear; nothing to lose. Today, all of our people can embrace this fresh push towards real unity. In our hands lies the key. Over these 54 years of my life in the political arena, I have worked towards this day when a broad coalition, a Rainbow Coalition, could be possible. I saw the contours of this coalition, not necessarily its substance, during 1975-1977 and again, in 1985. Today, the APNU+AFC Team Unity have taken a giant leap towards this achievement. What we have is not only a political union. We have taken the next vital steps to craft new plans and programmes for investment, economic and social growth and development of a new Guyana. We must, going forward, give meaning to our creed: “One People, One Nation, One Destiny”, and like Alexander Dumas’ Three Musketeers, from now onwards, we are “one for all and all for one”. Today, we are seeing an alignment of brilliant minds from all of the parties that have come together on a single platform, with a single purpose. I still remember the fleeting moments of meeting David Granger when we were both in short pants, in my native village Whim, and we crossed paths on our way to the Auchlyne Scots School. Our lives would have taken us to different paths – his to a career in teaching, in the police force and the military and mine in journalism, politics and law. If as boys we shared a village and a school, why today can we not share in common our country, our Guyana home? We will contest this election on issues and not personalities. I have no doubt that the APNU+AFC alliance will be victorious and that David Granger will be Guyana’s next President. I have every reason to believe that as President, David will be just and fair, that he will put Guyana first and help restore our beloved country to the place of respect and dignity in the Caribbean and the rest of the world. As destiny would have it, our multi-coloured national flag has blended harmoniously, like the rhythms of the tassa drum and steel pan; like cumfa and nagara. The field of gold of the AFC is merged with the rich, bountiful, green natural resources that APNU represents. As we prepare to take office, we note how utterly depraved this government has become by shamelessly misusing public funds. Our children, like little Red Riding Hood, are given a modern-day glimpse of the big bad wolves with newer, brighter and bigger teeth – the better to laugh at our people’s pain and misery. Our Alliance has said: It is Enough! There will be and must be a stop to this madness! A new day must come and it will come, in the words of Martin Carter, “inevitably and inexorably”. May 11 is Deliverance Day! Today there is reason for hope and optimism. Everywhere, in Sri Lanka and in St. Kitts-Nevis for example, Team Unity has won. It is time, according to the lyrics of Bob Marley, for us to “get together and feel all right”. Onward, upward, may we ever go, Day by day in strength and beauty grow, Till at length we each of us may show, What Guyana’s sons and daughters can be.
