Dear Editor,
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Fifty years have passed, for God’s sake! The demonization of Burnham and the claimed betrayal of the Jagan legacy are both just negative diversions from urgent issues that ought to be current as we prepare to choose our next government.
I think it is worse than unhelpful to keep pointing out politicians’ past associations going back 30 years or more. All we need to ask about candidates’ past is what their track record says of their credibility. There are other questions that we need to ask about them now. What ideas do they have to move Guyana forward? What’s in their record that says they can carry out their campaign promises? Do they have the will and the ability to enlist the energies of Guyana’s younger generations, whilst avoiding nepotism and other corruption?
From what I read of the election campaigns, all of our politicians believe that the majority of Guyanese can’t think intelligently about issues, but are easily conned, ruled by emotional responses. That’s proven to be the easy route to power in so many countries. Do our voters in fact deserve to be considered so shallow? Have we not got, and will we not truly get, the government we deserve?
Yours faithfully,
Gordon Forte
