VENGEANCE POLITICS: What motivates Opposition’s vengeance?
WHAT motivates Parliamentary Opposition leaders to discharge nasty anti-Government venom against their own nation’s democratically-elected Government?
These leaders spew a litany of woes, accusing Government of running an evil empire lording it over Guyanese. The harsh rhetoric flows with frequent nastiness, and we see the rapid erosion of Guyana’s image, with the detrimental impact of demoralising the Guyanese nation. Guyanese simply have had enough of the grotesque strife and dissent that stifles major development projects and national initiatives.
Do the Opposition spokespeople speak truth? Or do they exercise deception and cynical slyness to cripple the Government from governing effectively? And if so, why do they act this way? What motivates Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan to lead the Opposition into this ugly oppositional torment of the Guyanese people?
We became so disillusioned and despondent with the poor parliamentary leadership of the Guyanese nation during the 10th Parliament that today we stand perplexed.
We hear vociferous screaming and cussing about corruption in Government. We wake up daily to encounter a land full of harsh rhetoric. Our nation endured a rough ride. We are fed-up.
The Opposition thumps its proud chest for its efforts to cripple the democratically-elected Government, and even tries its utmost to label Guyana as a dictatorship, ignoring the fact that we all voted in free and fair national and regional elections. Why?
Leading the Opposition from the forefront, both Ramjattan and Nagamootoo openly express personal dislike for their former colleagues in the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). And they seem set on a path to exact revenge and vengeance on the Party that nurtured them into politicians, claiming that the Party’s internal system affected them negatively, and that certain personalities within the PPP worked against them. Unfortunately, this crusade crucifies the nation. They both seem determined to imprison top leaders of Government, in what they term is their crusade for accountability.
EGO & RANSOM
Our nation may be caught in the trap of a serious crisis: the politics of vengeance. Have we, our entire nation, succumbed to the politics of vengeance and revenge? One day the history of these times will be written, and we may very well label these days as the period of the politics of vengeance: we are witnessing how one man’s ego and quest for significance could hold our entire nation to ransom.
While we in no way claim that our Government is utopian and perfect, we must realise exactly what happened to Guyana from November, 2011 to now.
We suffer enormous vexation as we watch our nation pulled to political shreds.
Guyanese today stand on the firm foundation of democracy: we exercised our right to vote, in choosing, freely and fairly, our Government.
Yet, we see daily verbal attacks on the democratically-elected Government from these leaders of political parliamentary parties. Expecting responsible leadership, we see juvenile rants. And these gloomy malcontents, who take the entire Guyanese nation for a rough ride along the muddy confusing river of their discontent, spew vicious rhetoric of revenge and vengeance.
The crusade of Ramjattan and Nagamootoo for justice would appear authentic and real only were they to apply that credo to the entire Guyanese nation, not just personalities within the Government.
RODNEY’S DEATH
President Donald Ramotar initiated the Presidential Commission to probe the suspected assassination of Dr Walter Rodney, to introspect the circumstances and atmosphere in Guyana during the dictatorship rule of the People’s National Congress (PNC) in the time of the Rodney disaster, to achieve just what the rowdy Parliamentary Opposition says it wants: justice.
The suspected political assassination of Dr Rodney has languished unsolved as the Commonwealth Caribbean’s most vicious suspected political crime, a nasty stain on the conscience of the Guyanese nation.
If we want to reform national systems, like the Justice system and the national accounting system and so on, we must start with our most pressing problem: the Dr Rodney cold case, and even the role of the PNC in crippling Guyana’s social and economic structure during its two-plus decades of iron-fisted rule, cannot lie dormant and eventually forgotten in the dustbin of history. We must investigate what happened.
Yet, President Ramotar’s Government never embarked on a witch-hunt. Rather, Government offered the Commission to the nation as a truth and reconciliation effort. Out of the Commission, a book and documentary will write the Rodney story for history: justice at its most revered.
If Ramjattan and Nagamootoo care about justice and fair play, they would make the effort to champion the work of the Rodney Commission, and contribute to its success.
We cannot disregard the role of these gentlemen in the history of Guyana. They played outstanding roles in the fight against the PNC dictatorship for free and fair elections. So it’s profoundly puzzling that today they would cuss out and verbally attack the freely and fairly elected Guyanese Government.
We would welcome them were they less harsh and draconian, and so viciously determined to cripple and maim and even get rid of the democratic Government.
We live in a free society, and anybody is free to criticise Government, and to express discontent and malcontent and complaining. But when people ignore the fact that Guyana is governed under a freely and fairly elected Government, one’s got to ask questions of the motivation, narcissism and paranoia that drive such personalities.
Last Friday, Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture Dr Frank Anthony and President Ramotar launched the extension of the National Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal. The Olympic-sized swimming pool, along with the impressive warm-up 25-feet pool that opened to the public on Friday, showcases what transformation we’ve seen in Guyana these days.
In fact, the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, under the immense leadership of Dr Anthony, quietly built the Aquatic Centre, the Athletic track and field facility at Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara, and the National Stadium at Providence, with no fanfare and chest-thumping. So quiet has this sporting development been that we take it all for granted. Yet, today Guyana houses the most advanced and aesthetically pleasing Aquatic Centre in the entire Commonwealth Caribbean, and a world-class athletic field, and a stunning cricket stadium.
Dr. Anthony’s accomplishments come just out of one Ministry. Were we to tell the story of each Ministry and sector of the Government, we would see similar achievements.
Yet, the Opposition ignores these developments, and focuses on harsh rhetoric, thus damaging the image of our nation, and demoralising the Guyanese people. How could such irresponsibility pass for leadership, and escapes the average Guyanese.
The Opposition spokespeople would gain some credibility were they to extol the virtues of modern Guyana: of our outstanding democracy, with successful free and fair regional and national elections; with sports, culture and youth development progressing so rapidly; with our nation able to feed, house and clothe ourselves; with record foreign investments and solid macro-economic management; with Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Anil Nandlall’s admirable work to curb money-laundering. The list of positives and achievements is endless, and we must tell the real story, not a lopsided version of who we are as a people today.
Were Ramjattan and Nagamootoo and Brigadier Granger to talk of the development of the Stadium and the Marriott as positives and the Aquatic Centre and the Leonara Athletic Centre as major developments, were they to boost the heartbeat of Guyanese, showing us that we are an advancing, progressive people, we would be less of a demoralised people.
STATE MEDIA
The Opposition leaders complain that they get shut out of the State media. However, the State media would willingly cover their stories were they objective, rational and balanced in how they talk about our nation.
The State media cannot report emotional cussouts against a democratically-elected Government, and cannot provide a platform for the spewing of malicious and vengeful rhetoric. The State media is in the arena of the State, and the first and foremost goal of the State media is to lift the spirit of the Guyanese people, to motivate and inspire the people, to report on the work of the democratically-elected Government.
As much as the entire Media landscape needs urgent reform for professional Journalism to really contribute to this nation’s self-image, we cannot expect the State media to provide a platform for vengeance and revenge: that could be the forte of the private media, but the State media belongs to the people, and the people exercise our right in electing a free and fair Government.
Beating up on the governmental choice of the people could not possibly be a right of the Opposition. In the Opposition claiming it has a right to appear in the State media with its wild accusations and broad generalisations and harsh, demoralising rhetoric, we see the very definition of what’s disingenuous and crass.
At the end of the day, what appears to motivate the Opposition comes across not as love for Guyana and the championing of a democratic, free and open Guyanese nation, but rather a tearing apart of the socio-economic foundation of our society. The worst thing that could happen to a nation is the demoralisation of workers, producers, consumers and voters.
The skilled and knowledgeable of the population escape such demoralisation and tearing apart of the society’s image through migration: no human being wants to live in a land where he or she feels demoralised and depressed with the words we encounter in the public square. Human nature being what it is, we flee such rhetoric, simply to boost our own morale and motivation for living.
Yes, the State media needs serious work. As much as the malcontents and discontents do their utmost to demoralise and cripple the self-image of the Guyanese nation, the State media must develop the skills, culture and Journalistic professionalism to tell the true story of 21st century Guyana.
We want to see inspiring stories of our rice farmers, sugar workers, Lindeners, Berbicians, Essequibians, working and building their lives and designing their homes and driving nice cars and enjoying the lush pastoral beauty of their homeland. This is what the Opposition should request of the State media, instead of wanting their own face-time on State platforms.
We must get to the place where we’re telling the Guyanese story, in books, movies, newspaper features, news items, on TV and radio and blogs and social media, in a way that lifts the Guyanese heart and causes the Guyanese soul to soar with wonder and excitement and inspiring delight.
Guyana is among the most peaceful and pastoral nation in the world. We’ve solved problems of hunger, homelessness, illiteracy. Our landscape is so blessed, with no natural disaster, no war, no ethnic conflict, no cultural envy, no economic and social crisis.
What more do we want?
Guyana is not about the Government. Every five years we choose who governs us. After that election day, we go about the business of building and developing the nation. If we don’t like the leadership’s behaviour, we are free to vote our choice.
So what could possibly motivate the Opposition to try to deceive the world that Guyana has a dictatorship government that operates like an evil empire which lords it over the population? What motivates such an idea, such a terrible deceit?
If it’s the politics of vengeance, then the Guyanese nation would not forgive those who perpetuate this awful weight on our shoulders, causing us, instead of enjoying our beautiful nation and loving the sunny warmth of our paradisiac land, to become a demoralised, despondent people.
Like human society everywhere on the earth, Guyana is not perfect, and may never be thus. No Government could govern to satisfy every soul. Every society in the world suffers from discontents and malcontents creating mischief. Every Government harbours some leaders who would be selfish.
But to malign the entire Guyanese people, to hold the whole nation at ransom, just to exact vengeance and revenge, is downright mean and selfish.
As elections season heats up, we hope that we’ll see positive stories of the Guyanese nation’s place in the world today, of our progress as a people, of our hands joined together to elect the Government of our choice, of us telling the world that we are a matured, decent people, peaceful, harmonious, progressive.
We would do well to ignore the harsh rhetoric of those who try to deceive the population that Guyana is a dictatorship today, but we want to reach out to even these Guyanese to let them know that we should work together to write the future of the Guyanese nation, not with words from a tongue dipped in blood-red vengeance, but with words of inspiring encouragement.
Whether to the students at the University of Guyana (UG), or to the young athletes at the Athletic Centre in Leonora or young professional swimmers at the Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal, as we saw with President Ramotar and Minister Dr. Anthony last Friday, we must use the kind of words and language to the nation that would energise and motivate and inspire citizens, who vote free and fair for their Government, words that lift the heart of the Guyanese people to dream a Guyana Dream.
President Ramotar and Minister Anthony accomplished this last Friday, as soldiers, police ranks, school children, media folks, international sports administrators, and the public heard them paint the picture of Guyana’s future as a “world class” society, in the words of President Ramotar.
What must motivate us is this Guyana Dream.
*** PULL QUOTE
Whether to the students at the University of Guyana (UG), or to the young athletes at the Athletic Centre in Leonora or young professional swimmers at the Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal, as we saw with President Ramotar and Minister Dr. Anthony last Friday, we must use the kind of words and language to the nation that would energise and motivate and inspire citizens, who vote free and fair for their Government, words that lift the heart of the Guyanese people to dream a Guyana Dream…What must motivate us is this Guyana Dream.
By Shaun Michael Samaroo
