Dear Editor,
I was perhaps the last journalist to have spoken with Dr Faith Harding before she died. My third and final interview with her was on December 29, 2014. After several weeks of hiccups and postponement (due to my schedule and hers) we were able to find some consensus. She had wanted so badly to talk about the issue of the prorogation of parliament. By the time we had arranged the interview, that issue had become sort of irrelevant, as President Donald Ramotar had already named the election day.
Except for her swollen feet, she seemed fine as usual. She said that it was only because it was me that she agreed to be interviewed, since she complained about having a bout of chikungunya.
I always looked forward to our interviews. She always had something profound to say. She was an orator and a brilliant woman. I got to know Dr Harding on a personal level less than a year ago when I asked her to be featured as Kaieteur News ‘Special Person.’ She agreed and I turned up at her house at Anira Street, Queenstown. Two of our interviews took place at her home, while one took place in New York, last August.
I became fascinated with Dr Harding during our first interview, as she shared information about more than what I needed for a ‘Special Person’ feature. She talked about her extensive work in the Middle East, working with war-torn nations and helping to build and create new nations such as South Sudan, etc. She always had a view about an issue—and an intelligent one too—whether it was the current political situation; the Mayor & City Council of Georgetown; the government; the opposition; social issues; crime; the police—you name it, Dr Harding spoke critically to these issues.
Sadly, there won’t ever be a woman like her in Guyana. We have lost one of the best female leaders of our time. Guyana should mourn the loss of Faith Harding. She was bipartisan and understood the intricacies of Guyanese politics, enough to know that one does not have to be in government to help the people. She spent her life tirelessly helping the disadvantaged, the poor, the neglected and empowering women.
And Dr Harding was a friend of the LGBT Community in Guyana. As a human being, as a woman, she understood how the mind and brain work and she refused to cast judgment on the LGBT in Guyana and further afield. Her acceptance and support for such persons made her a person with even a bigger heart.
I was yet to flesh out the remains of our last interview which went way over 30 minutes (I have nearly 3 hours of interviews with Dr Harding), and I ended by asking her what were her hopes and aspirations for our country in 2015. Sadly, I did not know she would not have been around for much of 2015 to live out those aspirations and to see those hopes come alive. For 2015, she said, she wanted to see “vibration of concern and love for this nation—I want to see big investment in our interior.
“We should not have this energy problem that we have, given that we have so much water in our nation that can give us the energy that we need for production. It is time we have an energy source for our nation. It’s time for the development of our interior—the railways we must see running through our interior. We’ve got valleys to develop in this nation; we’ve got mountains to explore—2015 must see the start of that. 2015 must see investors pouring in to this nation, because we will lose the suspicion that we have of everything and everyone.”
Dr Harding went on to end our last interview by saying that 2015 is a year she had wished everyone would become more open to the other regarding development, trust and happiness. “I think 2015 will be the beginning of that and I hope that this President is able to reach out and ensure that investment and the suspicious nation, changes to a nation of hope and joy, by doing things and creating jobs; creating a feeling of trust—giving of yourself. Don’t be afraid to say yes; don’t be afraid to say no, so that 2015 will be the beginning of a nation that’s going to be the richest frontier within the Caribbean. We can do it! We can be the richest frontier. We can be the exciting nation if we do the right things in 2015, if we take the right steps, internationally as well as nationally; if we show respect and regard to other nations.”
She added that we don’t want our people thinking that you can use verbal abuse, and that this does not bring society into a depressed mode, “because they are embarrassed; because they are ashamed by the leadership of our nation losing control and providing verbal abuse to another nation.” For 2015, she had hoped that the government would change those kinds of behaviours, “because if you feel good about yourself, you don’t have to lower your standards to be abusive. You feel good, you are confident in what you are doing, you march on.”
And those were her last words to me on record. I shall continue to listen to them from time to time. I feel that Guyana did not use Dr Harding to the max as we should have. What a waste of brains and mind.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Suseran
