Dear Editor,
Mr Lincoln Lewis’ letter in your June 20 issue captioned ‘No constitution will bring about desired results if its provisions are ignored by the political leadership’ has prompted me to several regretful thoughts about the plight of my country. First that we have to listen to condescending advice from US diplomatic officers, but also that the problems on which outsiders advise us are not treated seriously by the mass of people who suffer from them, let alone by the politicians who benefit. The few voices raising such issues, like Mr Lewis, are ignored by the powers that emphatically be.
“The cabinet is inclined too to disregard any idea or proposal that comes from the opposition, even when it is sound…” Not only from the opposition, Mr Lewis, and soundness doesn’t come into it, in the face of the management principle, Not Invented Here (NIH). Any idea that didn’t originate from the inner circle is simply given no attention. Our elected leaders trust no one but the anointed, maybe for good reason; for with revelations of incompetence and worse on high, who is to be trusted?
I am surely not the only one to find ideas, new to today’s Guyana but researched from records of my and others’ experience, directly relating to stated policies and intentions of our government. Our problem is to find intermediaries to get such information to relevant ministers, since direct communications have led nowhere. If in the face of my record my motives are suspect, if I have to prove, to folks who knew me personally before they became politicians, that I seek no gain but to be of service to my country, then we are all truly cursed by the party system. Until they abolish the Paramountcy of the Party, even our best politicians can leave no healinglegacy.
“If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” I suffered materially, but without complaint, from this dictum under the governments of Burnham, Hoyte, Jagan, Jagdeo and Ramotar. And again I am denied, not earnings, but the opportunity of helping, under a government that promised change.
Helping, not with original ideas, but just by pointing out useful information that my leaders are too busy to notice. But like a true Guyanese I’ll back off yet again, relax and get over it, for another four years.
Yours faithfully,
Gordon Forte
