Dear Editor,
The idea being advanced by the coalition parties, APNU and the AFC, that voters must forget the past when making their decision at the polls is unfortunate. The AFC hopes that since our young people know nothing about the past and are therefore not burdened by it they will vote for the coalition.
If our youth know nothing of their history shouldn’t these supposedly responsible coalition leaders educate them, inform them and tell them about it? Is the coalition planning to win on the ignorance of our youth? Are they banking on it?
Why does the coalition not want young people to know about the past? Are they ashamed, guilty, or afraid of being unmasked as something they are not?
If youthful ignorance is being praised by the coalition one wonders what kind of education our children will receive should they win. A revisionist history of events? A blank of so many years because some want us to forget?
History matters. Writers and philosophers have said it in so many ways that not knowing your history, or willfully forgetting it leaves you rudderless and directionless, and could condemn you to repeating the mistakes of the past. It is from experience that we know what works and what should be corrected or abolished.
Because none of the parties is giving a clear vision of the future it has in mind, we have no alternative but to evaluate them from their past record. Who kept promises? Who subverted justice? Who condoned corruption? Who killed and who justified the killings? The list is long and the sad state of affairs is that no one side comes out unscathed. This is why it is especially important for young voters to know all of the history if they are to make an informed choice at the polls.
It is an especially difficult choice. One side fears a return to Burnhamism and the other a continuation of Jagdeoism. Most voters see it as a choice between two evils and since Indian Guyanese will see one party as the lesser evil and African Guyanese another, by and large, race-based voting will continue.
What a boon it would have been had just one party admitted to mistakes made in the past and given assurances that there would be no such recurrence. What a missed opportunity for true greatness to have put all of Guyana first and leave partisanship behind.
But we have no such leaders. We only have petty politicians and grubby, little opportunists. There is not a single statesman among the lot of them. Who is to blame for this sorry state of affairs, them or us?
I fear it is us as I watch thousands jig themselves merrily to nonsensical campaign messages including ones that tell us that our future lies in forgetting the past.
Given this sad state of affairs, Guyana will continue to lose no matter who wins at the polls.
Yours faithfully,
Ryhaan Shah
