Dear Editor,
During my years as a youth leader/activist in Guyana I was always hesitant to fully support a political party or the government of the day.
It is the confinement that comes with being aligned and the blind allegiance one had to quietly pledge, that may have caused me to develop a fierce independence, become controversial and disliked by many local people who would have been associated with politics in our community.
I had developed a sort of mild disdain for politicians who came to tell us they had the answers to our poverty. I looked into the eyes of many people and saw hope and belief turned to anger and bitterness as they developed a perpetual distrust for the very sound of the word politics.
I thought then and still think now that many of us who came from very humble beginnings who had made serious sacrifices to get somewhere in the echelons of society, found it a status symbol of our achievements to have finally arrived and in some strange and twisted way felt a sense of power and superiority over those lesser mortals still existing in the slums. To have those ‘lesser’ than us who may be dependent on our leadership to secure a better standard of living for them and their communities; we relish our greatness and significance while having no intentions of exerting ourselves vigorously to improve their lot.
It is that sort of power that brings on a form of invincibility that leads one to becoming corrupt and oppressive and in most instances dictatorial. The manifestations, of course, lead to the further impoverishment and misery of those we come to regard as lesser mortals.
The society becomes a reflection of its leaders and the leaders become a reflection of the society. There can be no superiority there. The measure is even. There can be no glorified, pompous, wealthy and celebrated leader in a dirt poor community, society or country.
Until we all take that responsibility to make this known to every young person growing up, we may just remain in the dungeons of our poverty in Guyana, as generations come and go.
The advantage that Guyanese political leaders take on the less than a million people resident in Guyana is scandalous.
Revolution after revolution must happen, as a zero tolerance approach ensues to break the back of the oppressive camel of political skullduggery existing in Guyana.
A change for better can and must come. This will not happen by hoping and believing, but by our actual disdain for hypocritical posturing of leaders. It will come by our intolerance for their ineptitude, and our constant agitating when necessary. It must come because there must be balance in our society. There must be a brighter day for the needy and forgotten.
Yours faithfully,
Norman Browne
