| A wake up call |  |  |  |
| Written by NEIL ADAMS |
| Tuesday, 01 May 2012 19:41 |
| I SHALL preface my remarks today by referring to statements made by my friends in the political divide, persons who've been having a non-stop party at the demise of the government's budget. In actual words one gentleman gloated over the way "tables have turned," the government is a dinosaur "de opposition got them by deh b**** deh should just give up deh post and leh Granger run de government. PPP is nuttin" and the taunting goes on. I as a supporter and writer on things pertaining to the government was not spared the onslaught either, very many things, horrible, nasty things had been hurled in my direction, some of which I cannot mention at this forum. One such comment runs like this : “You and your people fall out man’ I am not seeing those articles, where are your articles boy?” And this is precisely the point I have written on the present debacle, two to be exact, only one article seeing the light of publication and that was done by Stabroek News. My usual partners at the Chronicle newspaper have been strangely silent in this regard thinking, I guess, that I have suddenly become anti-government in my remarks, hence deny my letters the privilege of publication. Nevertheless, my back is broad enough and I shall take that narrow judgmental view of me as a joke but I shall say this: I am none of what they might think I am, and remain an ardent supporter of the government fully committed to the cause of country first, then party. However, I would not be a sympathetic Judas to fan the regime into a place of complacency that they can absolve themselves from any blame for the present mess. Far from it, we have all made mistakes. People as well as party. The whys and hows for us getting to this bottleneck should be the question for discussion and not the characteristic blame game of putting it solely on the people or on the opposition. This will not solve anything. We as a party must bear part of the blame. If you cannot sit down objectively and criticise yourself, then I'm afraid we are doomed to repeat the same mistake again and the future of Guyana becomes terribly bleak. So to shut out the views of those who clearly want to help is childish and myopic in my estimation. I must refer to a letter penned by the Minister of Agriculture Leslie Ramsammy in which he asks the question, "Is this what supporters of the AFC voted for?" Eruditely penned and cogent in content he asks the pertinent question is this what we voted for? I would respond no.They never voted for a party to in poodle-like fashion join in league with the rabidly power hungry PNC/APNU to betray their trust. Let us put APNU aside; they are the usual incorrigible thugs. However, the people expected the AFC to thrash out the budget details in a mature fashion and give support when it was justifiably due, but this was not to be. Instead, we saw a power display resulting in the blatant disregard for the development and well-being of people and country. Those are the shenanigans that took place. But let me get back to my point, as erudite and well-meaning as Dr Ramsammy's article was, his too, falls into the category of blaming the people and not turning the searchlight inwards to the party in government. Cross check with another Caribbean territory, St Lucia, and my readers would get the point I am making. One can rightly say no one "knows" St Lucia as Sir John Compton. I used know in lifted commas to strengthen the point that The Old man truly knows the Island State better than anyone else; he built St Lucia. He developed this country with his bare hands having lifted it out of ignorance and backwardness to a state where St Lucia is one of the leading nations in Caricom. So when Compton spoke he spoke with authority like one who literally owned St Lucia and that became his downfall. After having been at the helm for so long he unwittingly assumed that no one could challenge him so he failed to listen to the views of others, far less the warning signals that stood out like red neon signs; his strength in knowing was dimmed by his weakness in not wanting to know. The result was stunning defeat for the party. In fact, his party was almost decimated when the SLP had that 16 - 1 victory over the UWP. The point is, no one can stem the tide of a people who are angry with their party for taking a lofty position of arrogance and utter deafness to their cries. There are great lessons to be learnt from the St Lucian experience; no one knows Guyana like the PPP/C. There is no question in my mind about this. To bring a country that was once rated behind Haiti, yes Haiti, to a position of prominence on the world stage is nothing short of phenomenal. Budget after budget for more than 19 years attest to this fact that the PPP/C government cares for this country they want to build and develop. But by the same token the people who brought the party into office are angry; they are angry with their leaders for losing touch with the base, for taking them for granted; not consulting, not listening, not seeing through their eyes. To capture their attention they have given them a wake-up call. They are asking for their leaders to get back into the trenches with them, get close to the ground and look at the situation from the grass-roots level. It is the people who will speak again. |
Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 May 2012 19:43
|
