Statistics tell one story. It’s quite different to experience the reality of what those stats mean.
The stats tell us that upwards of 85 percent of skilled people migrated from this country. This means that roughly 15 percent of the population here is skilled, professional and able to offer quality leadership.
And, the bulk of the population needs these leaders to step up to the podium, inspire and motivate them, and strengthen social structures to contribute well to their lives.
What this country seems to lack more than anything else is inspiring leadership.
Local television is littered with folks in leadership positions in this elections campaign season who pontificate such divisive, uninspiring, coarse speeches that the public must be quite depressed.
The local television scene needs enormous amount of work to raise its standards.
On the elections front, a government spokesman, reportedly employed at the Office of the President, spent an hour on local TV this week maligning the Stabroek News, and labeling it an opposition newspaper, accusing it of bias. He said this newspaper supports the Alliance For Change.
Here is a newspaper that has an excellent track record as the voice of democracy in this country, as an unbiased, independent, free and fair national daily newspaper, and the government attacks it with vicious venom.
Stabroek News has always stood up and taken leadership to offer a voice to the people of this country. For decades the State media shut out the people from exercising their voice in national affairs.
This government spokesman pig-headedly ignored the Guyana Chronicle, NCN TV and State radio in his grotesque attack on the Stabroek News.
Ironic it is that he used the Stabroek News headlines of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s to make his case that the People’s National Congress had brought economic and social chaos to Guyana.
Having established the breakdown this country suffered, using the Stabroek News headlines as his evidence, he proceeded to label the same work the Stabroek News does now, as “opposition”.
The public knows that this newspaper is a democratic organ. It stands for the rights of ordinary people all across this country. It offers the only credible check and balance against the abuse of State power, something that goes on in this country with impunity.
Does the government expect the Stabroek News to be like the Guyana Chronicle?
The guy spent the entire TV programme displaying headlines from the Stabroek News. One segment used this newspaper as evidence of the previous government’s wrong-doing. The other segment used this newspaper for propaganda against all democratic voices that operate as checks and balances against the abuse of State power.
It is the absolute lowest depth of intellectual dishonesty to descend to such levels. Losing skills to migration is one thing. Having leaderswho refuse to behave with any sense of public decency or intellectual honesty is quite another.
No wonder a lot of local leaders resent overseas-based Guyanese coming back here. Under the guise of “we stayed in the fight, so don’t come tell us what to do”, they shut out professional skills to enjoy lording it over a demoralized public.
What faces this country on November 28, 2011 is no longer which political party forms the government. We have gone so far down the road of social deterioration that we must gather our best leaders who committed their talents, skills and leadership to this country, to govern us.
We need to get the best leaders available to govern the people, to inspire them and motivate them to build a great Guyanese nation.
It’s not about politics or political parties. It’s about leadership. We have lost good leadership, and that’s the task facing voters this elections – to install good leadership, good governance and good conscience to oversee this nation’s future.
Voters are saddened and disappointed and demoralized because their leaders treat them like dirt. Leaders jump on TV and platforms and think they could say and do anything without regard for the people listening to them.
Which government leader can defend the President saying he is in “cuss down mode”? Could the President himself defend such a grotesque statement? Was he under the influence? It is supremely puzzling why a Head of State would say such things.
It is supremely puzzling that a government spokesman would go on a national TV station to label this newspaper as opposition, when all it does is be a credible journalism vehicle.
It is puzzling for N. K. Gopaul to defend Varshnie Jagdeo not receiving proceeds from the Presidential pension. It is puzzling for a media company-aligned private business to sue the executive leader of an opposition party, when so much poor journalism is practiced. It is puzzling that the President chose a ghetto strategy to campaign for a return of his party to government.
Where have we failed as a nation?
The public space in this land is so filled with venomous, poisonous and depressing words. It is extremely puzzling. One wonders if these people have lost any sense of good conscience, public decency and humane respect for the rights of others.
No less than the President of this country makes the alarming statement that he is in “cuss down mode”. And not one single Minister of the government or member of the ruling party stands up to say this is wrong.
Jumping on stage and gyrating to lewd lyrics cannot be good for the children of this country. But, no one in the government apologises to the nation. Does anyone even see this as wrong? Or do we have governmental leaders of such calibre that they do not consider such public conduct as demeaning? I fail to see how leaders such as Manzoor Nadir, NK Gopaul, Priya Manickchand, Sam Hinds, or Dr Frank Anthony could tolerate such public behaviour, without a single word of protest.
Who defines the parameters for public behaviour in this country?
What we are seeing displayed as public behaviour in this elections 2011 season is the reality of those statistics: the country’s leadership seems to have lost any sense of what a civilized society means.
This is, sadly, where we stand as a nation, as we face national elections on November 28, 2011.
