Dear Editor,
After reading all the letters and comments about Guyanese fleeing to all corners of the globe because of the poor quality of governance at home and the general failed society they have left behind, I simply have to say that some of those who are fleeing to foreign shores have created, fostered and contributed to the problem in the first place. The majority that flee are exactly the ones who had voted and campaigned for incompetent government and the resulting failed and weak policies. These are the individuals who turned a blind eye to corruption and inefficiency for the sake of maintaining the status quo of their preferred group, party or race at one point or another. These are individuals who funded these organizations, partook in their spoils and continue to fund them from abroad. These are individuals who remain ignorant of tolerance and sharing, but want foreigners to be open-minded to them and their plight. They create a terrible mess and then leave it at first opportunity, running for other lands.
Since independence our nation has seen this nonsense practised by a significant majority of both major racial groups and supporters of both major race-based parties. These individuals promptly left in droves after playing their part. Both major groups and supporters of both major political parties have had their opportunities to choose differently, but failed to do so. We have had 28 years on one hand and 17 years on the other of this practice. Some run legally, others run illegally and then bawl from abroad when other nations in all fairness and with due regard to law and human rights say enough is enough. Often times, Guyanese take their entrenched biases, prejudices and simmering disputes into foreign lands.
The other aspect to this issue is the fact that we have had Guyanese of all races fleeing this nation in droves since the 1960s. There has been large-scale corruption, bribery, incompetence, ineptitude, inefficiency, disorganization and maladministration practised by many of these very Guyanese who fled to other lands. What is amusing is how these individuals become upstanding, industrious, competent, efficient and productive individuals in their respective spheres of involvement outside Guyana. These individuals who felt that they had nothing to contribute to Guyana because of a particular government in power suddenly found the strength to contribute to other nations. Many blame the system as exerting a deleterious effect on their productivity but they are able to start lives, often in their middle and latter years, in a foreign land and succeed against all odds by exercising a formidable will. This is essentially the crux of our problem. Is it acceptable to build a foreign land by struggle, but unacceptable to do the same for our own? The system will never change in Guyana unless Guyanese change it for the better. Guyanese have proven that they can deliver in systems that are even marginally better than Guyana’s. The problem starts with every Guyanese who chooses to vote on the basis of race, encourages problems such as corruption and incompetence, and then flees.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Maxwell
