Dear Editor,
GHK Lall has issued a call for Guyanese to put a hold on aggravated partisanship and for us to think nationally, rather than be pushed solely by parochialism. Despite the rather abstruse style of Mr. Lall, his message is worthy of careful consideration.
Before I engage the central points of Lall’s article I should ask the gentleman to note that Guyana does not exist in a vacuum. By this I mean that while we must indeed look at the problems of Guyana in a Guyanese context, the impulse to compare cannot be simply wished away. After all, at least 50% of the active critics of the Government of Guyana who write in the press are living overseas.
In fact, Lall himself engages in juxtaposing developments in Guyana with those of other countries. Here he is – “Of course, it is conveniently ignored that some of the other societies can “afford” the ill effects of some corruption and failures; that there are safety nets in place; that the official poverty measurements represent a manageable livable standard for our fleeting countrymen; that justice is served most of the time; that the playing field, while not always level, admits others; and that even at its most deplorable, those societies are repositories of hope, inspire confidence, and which their citizens will not exchange for anywhere else” (SN Oct. 23).
This is quite a lot. But I must say to Mr. Lall that it is all too convenient to dismiss comparisons with those other green pastures, when all the time Guyanese are led to believe that those other places are beds of roses. Lall has to make up his mind. If you want to compare Guyana to the glitter of other societies, you must also be made aware of their problems. Is it a small matter that 40% of African American and Latino children in the U.S. live in poverty; is it a trifling matter that after 400 years of history African American males make 64% of what white workers make; is it a trivial matter that 50 million Americans do not have health care; is it a trifling matter that Guyana has actually experienced more rapid upward social mobility compared to many southern states in the U.S. or compared to Appalachia? Is it a small matter that Baltimore with a population of 600,000 has 300 homicides every year? It is of no importance that only 1 in 5 students in Washington D.C. graduates from high school? Is it irrelevant that students have to pass through metal detectors in many school districts? Is it irrelevant that hired hands are used to scrub hundreds of thousands of minority voters from the voters list?
Guyanese must be well aware that many middle class Guyanese live a much better life compared to even the middle class in those societies that they constantly praise. This is the reason why the real Guyanese middle class, generally speaking, do not leave Guyana.
Having said all of that, Lall is still making a valid point about thinking nationally.
I have myself called for a more open and balanced conversation in the press. We all need to keep in mind that governments all over the world defend their record, and opposition parties and other opposition elements spend all their time attacking that record. Even a Nobel Prize for President Obama is attacked.
I will state this as clearly as possible – Guyana has a far way to go. It is not a bed of roses.
I will also insist here that if Lall and other commentators cannot see positive developments in Guyana then I cannot envisage how we will get out of this quagmire of aggravated partisanship. The time for bipartisanship is now.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Randy Persaud