Dear Editor,
There are some things in this country that cause me to shake my head in disbelief. On Emancipation Day, a day sacred to people of African heritage, PPP Government agents could think of, push ahead with, plans that divide not unite. There can be no justification for a competing Emancipation Day event; only a special category of Guyanese could. To hold it closer than a stone’s throw from an annual event hosted for decades by the African Cultural and Development Associa-tion (ACDA) of Guyana is insulting, provocative. What is planned for Emancipation Day is sacrilegious on a sacred day for African Guyanese, others. Study the principals and government’s hand is smeared.
Malteenoes Sports Club ground is the venue where high voltage imported entertainers will perform for those likely bussed in from outlying areas. To hold it so close to ACDA’s celebrations can only have one objective: to provide a naked exhibition of who has the money, who has the power, and who among those in the African-Guyanese community will step forward and deliver according to plan. History has always had them, and history has not been kind to them. If another objective is to overwhelm with volume and ‘put in place’, then too much time and resources are wasted. How does this competing celebration give energy, life, and sustaining power to any element of President Ali’s One Guyana mantra eludes. It may be exhilarating for a few hot hours on Emancipation Day, but it is self-defeating. After that, then what?
It is preferable to see honest energies expended to foster what knits and heals this ruptured society. From the pinnacle of power in Guyana to the people who represent manifestations of that power on the ground, of what utility is such a show? To prove who has what it takes, who can and will do anything that they wish? I am still struggling about the PPP sponsored event is of any value to visions of One Guyana. Perhaps, the real objective is more than One Guyana. Emancipa-tion Day is too precious to the African Guyanese community for ugly, profaning politics of this country to intrude on it, make a football of its rare hours.
If I am right, ACDA has over the decades issued official invitations to both the government and opposition. It’s a good standard, has much to recommend it re inclusivity. All politicians in Guyana should have an appreciative nod. I think that Emancipation Day, like Diwali, the days of Eid, or Good Friday, provides an opportunity for all Guyanese to respect such profound days and the dignity of those who celebrate them. There is an extraordinary transcendence in those times of sharing, and none should tamper with it. Tampering has happened.
If it is vital that the PPP Govern-ment hold its own Emancipation Day event/festivity, then better to host it farther. Why does it have to be right next door, almost in the face? I wish that there is some learning, growing in Guyana. Exercises like this fail in breaking either the back, spirit, or will of those targeted, squeezed. The objects-organizational, communal, individual-only become more dogged in resistance to what is recognized immediately. Another obscenity, an-other uncalled-for instance of thoughtlessness, deep-seated maliciousness.
Guyanese leaders, Guyanese universally, urgently need self-emancipation from the enchaining old. Speaking in solemnly expansive and inclusive terms in public has lost value, become the ultimate in hypocrisy. A competing Emancipation Day event is proof beyond dispute. To think of such, then deposit right in the craw of the vintage ACDA celebration of a day sacred to African Guyanese contorts this country some more. It undermines board by board, citizen by citizen, any genuine intentions by leaders towards the harmoniousness, oneness that is preached. A torn asunder Guyanese society desperately needs authentic leadership, respectful leadership, healing leadership. Emancipation Day should inspire such graces.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall