Why we should be men and not mice
As we prepare to celebrate Ghana Day this weekend, we are reminded that that was the first country in Africa to gain its independence from Great Britain in 1957. We remember that in 1948, on the heels of communal violence, India became independent less than a decade earlier, even while there was turmoil and the manifestation of discontent in the British Gold Coast in West Africa. The majority of Guyanese have their roots in these two countries and there are many lessons in their histories that provide useful tools if Guyanese irrespective of religious, ethnic, or political persuasion are to avoid a return to imperial domination and the indignity of neocolonialism.
A key element is the temperament and behaviour of those who today are in charge of the ship-of-state. Reviewing recent events, particularly as it relates to our non-renewable natural resources and the contradiction of heavy handedness as it relates to the treatment of government employees, we see PPP as being equal to Petty, Pusillanimous, and Proclivity. Briefly, are our leaders’ men or mice? Events saturated and consumed by powerful propaganda this week, thanks to activists - Elizabeth Hughes, Karen De Souza, Vanda and Danuta Radzik - who presented arguments to the International Human Rights High Commission, and pointed to the policies of the government and the impacts of private companies on human rights with specific focus on the ‘Right to a Healthy Environment, Rule of Law and Justice in Oil and Gas Industry.’ Are our leaders’ men or mice?
Not to forget that no explanation has been given for shifting the entry point for the Gas-to-Shore Project from Nabaclis on the East Coast Demerara to Wales on the West Bank Demerara, or was this the same wisdom that shifted the Berbice bridge from Rotterdam, East Bank of Berbice, then Ithaca on the West Bank of Berbice to its present location at nearly double the cost? So are we building, without appropriate consultation or discussion, about who violates the essence of the Greater Georgetown Development Plan, prepared and accepted by the Georgetown
City Council, by agreeing to build two massive hotels, utilising public open spaces, supported by purported champions of the earth or chips of the earth? Are we men or mice?
The 1953 Government, led by Forbes Burnham and Dr. Cheddi Jagan, supported a state for the people of Palestine. Today, our leaders have become soft-spoken on the events in Gaza. Are we men or mice? Listen to the asseverations of President Ali to the CARICOM Heads of State on the question of Haitians. Is the Government treatment of Haitians different to the treatment of people from Venezuela, even as his Minister of Home Affairs expresses a concern that Venezuelan immigrants are causing overcrowding in our prisons? MP Amanza Walton’s letter exposing this hypocrisy is crystal clear, but are we men or mice?
I refer to a letter published in the media where I debunked this nonsense about the ‘sanctity of contracts’ by the very people, who before 2020, publicly stated that they were horrified by the contracts signed by the Coalition in 2016 and would renegotiate. Reminding ourselves that if or when circumstances arise, one or both of the contracting parties can seek to examine to make changes or to annul as happens with marriages. Are we men or mice? In 2018, before the oil bonanza, the PPP said teachers’ salary should be increased by 50%. Today, thanks to short memories, they tell the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) that they must be patient, forgetting or never hearing of this truism, that while “the grass is growing, the horse is starving”. Are we men or mice?
As we celebrate Ghana Day on the 6th March, let us remember why and how Nkrumah was deposed in 1966. There are lessons for us that we should be men, not mice, and anchor the construction of our nation state on faith in ourselves, ancestral piety, hard work and fair sense of independence, so that our children and our children’s children will be proud of us that we did not yield to temptation and make a reality that Massa Day done.