Dear Editor,
As the next general elections loom, many politicians and others are scrambling to reach the height of power in this country: the presidency. We, the citizens, who pay the bills for all the political hoopla associated with the next elections, are faced with the same old, same old. The same old ideas which all of our ‘leaders’ hold close to their breasts; ideas which include more government and its consequences for our children’s welfare, more red tape and its consequences for the simplicity we desire, more taxes and the consequences for our collective pockets, more talk about this statistic and that statistic and what they did for us when we know better after 40 years of socialism/communism – and the consequences in terms of failure.
The next elections demand of us an interest we have never shown before, especially on the part of our young citizens, because this time they have to face the whole truth and nothing but the truth about our dear country.
Change is in the air everywhere in the world; just look at the news, and the youth everywhere are the propellants for change. Guyanese young people have to wake up and smell the coffee because they can determine the outcome of who will be their president come next year. Firstly, registering to vote is the most crucial action anyone can take, because it now gives them a certain small power of will and action and a commitment to this society and the citizens who inhabit it.
All the citizens of this country need to be registered to vote on election day so that each individual citizen can share in that one important day of decision for our future. Luckily for us, there is freedom and convenience in the registration process and no-one will be denied his God-given right to vote his/her conscience.
We need a new face of change in the direction in which our country is going, because division, disunity and disharmony are the present criteria of our political dysfunction and our votes are the only medicine to cure the political diseases mentioned above; our votes are the only way we can find a new beginning. The will of the people is represented in their votes, and on that day of decision we, the citizens, have to be smart and discern the right way from the wrong way forward. We have to be cognizant of those politicians who will lie or tell half-truths and those who will try to confuse and demoralize us with nonsense; we have to realize that they only want to see us and interact with us because they are bent on power and have promised things they have failed to deliver over the years when they never needed to consult us; we have to bend them over backwards with questions and criticisms which will show their mettle and their sincerity; we have to demand national debates so we can see and evaluate each of these ‘leaders’ who want to be president, and then make up our minds as citizens by looking at our own situation in life and the solutions to our problems; we need to understand the vision of each aspirant in such areas as crime, unemployment, poverty, constitutional rights and other pressing problems.
The citizens of Guyana, whether young or old, rich or poor, deaf, dumb or blind, trying to leave or staying forever, educated or not, need to get registered to vote in the next election as soon as possible in order to effect changes to the fortunes of their lives and for the good of this country. They must register to vote; it is the power God gave them to protect their life’s investment in our blessed country.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)