It is customary for individuals to offer New Year’s wishes for each other, but we believe it is just as important for us, the citizens of Guyana, to make some specific wishes for our country; which we should then attempt to make become a reality. In the end, after all, a “country” is simply a reification of its people, and it is us, the people, who will benefit in the end.
Our first wish is that all of Guyana’s citizens would take their pledge with utmost seriousness: “I pledge myself to honour always the Flag of Guyana and to be loyal to my country, to be obedient to the laws of Guyana, to love my fellow citizens, and to dedicate my energies towards the happiness and prosperity of Guyana.”
The flag of Guyana, the Golden Arrowhead, represents our country, but how many of us remember what each of its colours symbolises? The GREEN represents the agricultural and forested nature; WHITE, the rivers and water potential of the country; a GOLDEN arrow represents our mineral wealth; BLACK, the endurance that will sustain the forward thrust of us, the people; and RED, the zeal and dynamic nature of nation-building — which is the duty of all of us.
If we really honour the flag and want to be loyal to Guyana at this juncture of our history, we should zealously resist the exploitation of our mineral wealth — which is an integral part of the patrimony of each and every one of us — without the proceeds contributing to our development. For too long, Guyana has been relegated to the bottom of the barrel by so many of the metrics used to measure human development.
From the time it was labelled “El Dorado”, the City of Gold, our Guyana has been labelled as a country with “great potential,” but that potential was never realised.
For the first time in our history, with the discovery of massive deposits of petroleum off our shores as an independent nation, we have an opportunity to transform that potential into a reality within this generation.
When bauxite, for instance, was discovered at the beginning of the last century, we were still a British colony, and the bauxite was transferred to the US and Canada, where value was added by converting it to aluminium there, while we were left with holes in the ground. If we wish our country the best, we must ensure that the equation be reversed and the bulk of our oil wealth remains here.
For 2018, we would also wish the US Secretary General keep his commitment, which stated that since his Good Offices process did not produce a settlement of the controversy by the end of 2017, and Venezuela had precipitated in 1962 over our border fixed in 1899, he would now submit the case to the International Court of Justice. Our cause is just, and we are certain justice will be done, and the mythological Sword of Damocles that Venezuela insists on holding over our heads will be removed.
We also wish that the Government would make the interventions it promised in its manifesto: to stand by the workers of this country, which also includes sugar workers. Because of the nature of Guyana’s political cleavages, the present hands-off approach to the dire crisis precipitated by the Government’s unilateral closure of four sugar estates and the consequent firing of 5700 workers, it is almost certain that the social dislocations could degenerate into political ones, unless a more humane approach is adopted.
Finally, we would be remiss if we did not wish for the Government to also keep another of its manifesto promises: to include the Opposition into the governance structure of the country, so that greater legitimacy would be conferred on its programmes for our beloved country. A house divided cannot long stand, and we have been divided for too long. And opportunity will be presented as early as next Wednesday, when the President will meet the Opposition Leader; and we hope the President would make the right move.
