Dear Editor,
The political dysfunction in Guyana is adding enough stress to responding to Covid-19. The new rumblings of stricter lockdowns in a time when a significant part of the population hasn’t any trust in the political authorities on the National Covid Task Force make things worse. How ‘National’ is the national Covid-19 task force when the task force is not even accessible to the diverse populations in the nation? How National is the task force when it does not seem to involve the Nation in its decisions?
In the article “The Kerala Model” in SN of May 12, 2020, Shashi Tharoor writes glowingly that “Unlike other states, Kerala’s response has centered on people’s participation, not law enforcement.”
Now, in this time of mistrust, in this time of uncertain knowledge about this health crisis, is the time for citizens to demand that the de facto Government involve them in the decisions which affect them. This is not only about national Government, but also at Regional and NDC and village level. This is not the time to fill up jails with people who want to break lock down and curfew orders. There are concerns at local levels – what works for Georgetown cannot work for Lethem or Paramakatoi. People on the coast should not be making decisions alone which affect the lives of people in the hinterland. People in Georgetown alone cannot be making decisions about protection which cannot apply in rural communities. Let people say what they need to protect themselves from this virus. Of course there is a percentage of the population who will question the virus and the energy around it. One good thing, if there is any good thing, about this pandemic is that it seems that all of Guyana’s political spectrum seem willing to adhere to the scientific guidelines and no one is asking their constituents jokingly or otherwise to inject disinfectants or be selective about wearing of masks or to disobey the lock down orders.
Unlike Tharoor’s Kerala though, Guyana does not have the social compact of trust in the authorities.
So now is a good time, to start from this position of the mistrust, to move to a position where even if we are not going to vote for each other or want each other’s political party to emerge successfully from the recount, that we can at least create some mechanisms to work together to get through Covid without being further oppressed.
And maybe in surviving Covid, we get to survive the Recount.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
