Dear Editor,
We have moved from the politics of rigged elections to the politics of narcotics and the gun. It is quite clear that if any aspect of progress we are making is truly based on the tenets of the latter, it doesn’t take rocket science for us to figure out that it is a dangerous type of pseudo progress that will continually hurt us as a nation. As Guyanese, we cannot make the government the cynosure of our hope against drugs, crime, racism, poverty and the lack of security that have invaded the land. We must understand that the people who make up governments are careerists: political careerists! Careerists are people who are first of all trying to look good as they benefit from their positions.
We have to overcome the dependency syndrome that forces us to look to the government for all types of help. If we truly understand the concept of independence, we will realize that it should equip us with an understanding of who we are, the power we can generate as a people and the changes we can influence by using that power in our society.
At every level (village, town or settlement), we should come together to banish the evils in our society that are affecting us and holding us to ransom. That ransom is our comfort, our confidence and our personal prosperity as a people. That ransom is the progress that is due to us as children of Guyana who have been working honestly for the good of the land. It is every opportunity for peace and unity that we forfeit. It is our children: their hope and their future. It is sad but the weight of what we are enduring today will show up on our children’s shoulders.
It will not be fair to them. We have to wake up from our sleep and slumber. We have to wake up from our spiritual lethargy and use our belief in God, and the bold spirit He has given to us to use our talents, our voices, our lives and our courage against the atrocities that are occurring today, in our country.
If we do not understand something, we must not turn our backs to it by pretending that it does not exist. We have to investigate why we are the way we are. Why with every New Year we are without the things we most need. Why in the face of change, there is moral retrogression and spiritual decadence. Why there is so much social deceit and corruption infiltrating our culture.
We have to find the true source of this blanket of frustration that is being spread across our face as our nation. In our 42 years, we have been through too much.
Down with narcotics! Down with racism! Down with the irresponsible use of the gun! Down with violence and crime! Down with dependency on government where it is not necessary!
Up the people! Up with Guyana! Yours faithfully,
Pastor Kwesi Oginga