Dear Editor,
After an extended period out of the classroom and on the streets, the teachers’ strike is off. May that off button be held down long-term. Of interest was how the pendulum of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) swung in a wide arc. It travelled from the rigidity of non-negotiable resumption conditions to one of considerable flexibility. For sure, it was not one hand clapping. It is a positive development, one that features good faith, trusting in both a conversation, bolstered by reciprocal trust. There it is – good faith again. Everyone may not be encouraged. I am at the far other end.
The GTU got a few things that should comfort its members: continuity, security, removal of the retaliatory. The government came out with teachers going back into the classroom. I will not speculate over what shifted minds on both sides of that divide and influenced a softening of hard positions. It is good enough for me that there is movement in a seemingly helpful direction. A meeting of minds may be the best summation possible. For either of such developments would waste the efforts that led to where the matter stands today: the strike is off. If only there could be a little more, then some more, of the give and take so vital for this nation and its peoples to progress, there is so much that is possible.
Instead of Guyanese minds sticking to the unchanging, immovable, irreversible script, this society-government [whichever group], people, standards, culture, hopes will remain bogged down in the quicksand that refuses to let go, a few steps up and out could occur. Look at where this country is, what we have done to ourselves and for ourselves. After all the roads and airports and more, all the spending and quarreling and wrangling, I say with my own unbending conviction that Guyana is still the same. Oh, and one more, the same readiness to run to neighbours (in this instance, foreigners who may mean well, but have their own agendas) to help resolve our differences. Regarding the latter, we have grown content to accept patchwork to hold us together until the next inevitable crisis. Partial, maybe even pyrrhic, victories have left us wanting, but also not learning. Not yearning for another Guyana. I insist that this holds true at the individual, group, leadership, and national level.
Frankly, I detest, am embarrassed, when there is running to outsiders to cure the sicknesses that are buried deep in our bowels, if not brains and soul. If there is any genuineness in the love that we say that we have for our beloved Guyana, then not one Guyanese of even minimal patriotic fervor would be pleased with such irresolution at helping ourselves. Already, invitations have been extended to the international community to come and secure us in 2025. Then what, I ask after that, the same to follow in another five years?
Forget about embarrassment, I am humiliated that we present such a scarred face to the world, our betters, that they must take pity on Guyana and come here to snatch us out of our self-made hells. All that groups and leaders – tribes and tribal chiefs – are surrendering to is to allow others to put masks over our faces, so we don’t see beyond the moment. Speaking for myself only, I will forever refuse to take my quiet place in what members of British royalty used to call “the lower orders.”
Against this longstanding and desultory backdrop, there is guarded optimism that the developments in the GTU-Government impasse are now where they are. It is a source of pride that this place was reached on our own. And as motivated by practical minds, and the willingness to crawl around and find ways to carve out, sliver by sliver, some type of agreement that sets a work paper far beyond the next 3-5 years. I call on all the parties to take matters from where they are now poised to something that is lasting, with refinements made, as necessary later. Last, I looked at that media picture announcing the end of the strike. It is enlightening how the atmosphere, at least as publicly presented, progressed from cold and stiff and grim to warmth and smiles and handshakes.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall