Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” is an extended meditation on loss, that was written in the mid-19th century. But its message remains very relevant at times like today when we may mourn the passage of time. The line “Ring out the old, ring in the new” has entered the English Language but we sometimes forget his forceful exhortation that “The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” Meaning there was much in the past year that was not salutary and in fact was “false”; and this we must replace with what is true.
And what was false in our country, last year? Of course, there are many but one that sticks out was the dangerous insistence that an “apartheid regime” was being practised in Guyana. Apartheid, of course, is a form of governance legally institutionalising an official racial stratification that places groups in the society in a racially-stratified hierarchy – with Whites at the top and Blacks at the bottom with others in intermediate positions. Now while all societies are stratified in one form or another, it is the official imprimatur by the State that, for instance, mandates segregated living areas that characterise apartheid. In Guyana, there are no such laws and in fact if individuals are discriminated against on the basis of race, there are laws that the Courts can enforce. This is the “true” that must be rung in.
Tennyson also asked that we, “Ring out the grief that saps the mind.” This is a very noble aspiration that fortunately we see beginning to sprout since the Ali Administration was allowed to assume office five months after they won the 2020 elections. “Ring out the grief that saps the mind’ beautifully describes the situation the poor found themselves stuck in a stagnating or ruined economy in which there seemed to be no way out. Today, with the funds from our share of the oil revenues being used by the Government to initiate a massive infrastructural revolution, even those who might still be poor can see a light at the end of the tunnel as the infrastructure facilitates investments and investments provide jobs.
But he advises that we “Ring out the feud of rich and poor, / Ring in redress to all mankind.” Meaning that there has been no society that has lifted itself out of poverty through a process in which there is not an initial period where the entrepreneurial groups may have more wealth than others. The utopians like Burnham and Chavez of Venezuela who attempted to ignore that truism soon destroyed their economies to create one where all were equal – equally poor. The lesson we must imbibe is that – as in Guyana – the State provided social services to take care of basic needs such as education and medical care – then over time, as in the Scandinavian countries, the entire society (“all mankind”) will enjoy high standards of living.
Tennyson also asked that we “Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws.” And what is our “slowly dying cause”? It is the political mobilisation along racial lines that has poisoned our body politic since we began agitating for independence in the 1950s. All of us knew that this was a base form of mobilisation that led to “party strife”, because our ideal was always that our political organisations be “multiracial”, but we strayed from that ideal. Today, the PPP Government can proudly point to development across the land in which all groups are participating equitably. While the Government clearly believes that comparisons are odious, last year PM Phillips revealed that African Guyanese received 48 per cent of house lots while they are only 29% of the population.
We close without comment with Tennyson’s exhortation: “Ring out false pride in place and blood,/ The civic slander and the spite;/ Ring in the love of truth and right,/ Ring in the common love of good.”
Happy New Year!!
