Well, here we are…we made it to another Republic Day. Number 55 and still surviving as a nation! Now, this isn’t just simply looking for a silver lining behind the dark clouds that hover perpetually over our precarious existence, but just emphasizing it’s something shouldn’t take for granted. Look at Cyprus…they split back in 1974 into Greek and Turkish enclaves and, like Humpy Dumpty, hasn’t been put back together again!! Ditto Yugoslavia, which used to be showcased as a model for ethnic groups living together. We won’t mention all those fissioning over in Mother in Africa!!
Yet – when you consider all we’ve been forced to put up with, just surviving as a nation ain’t been easy. We gotta remember one of the founders of the PNC proposed back in 1962 that if we couldn’t get along then we should split Guyana!! Even Burnham thought that was a tad extreme and expelled the fella from the PNC. However, he soon returned home was one of the fervent PNC supporters during the ethnic riots that amounted to a full scale civil war. But we survived as ONE Guyana.
Most of the credit for that feat gotta go to the fortitude of the PPP under Cheddi’s leadership. How many times didn’t he eat humble pie for the sake of our unity, following Burnham’s rigging of the elections in 1968, 1973 and 1980 to hold on to power illegally? He was constantly hounded by his supporters – who were being crushed by the jackboots of the Burnhamite dictatorship – to “do something”. But he always demurred saying that a bloodbath wasn’t worth it. He wanted One Guyana!!
The price paid by those supporters was unbelievable after the depredations of kick-down-the-door bandits and several goon squads – like the House of Israel. And starvation. Hundreds of thousands of them fled to whichever country would have them – the USA, Canada, Suriname, Venezuela, TT and all the other Caribbean islands. Unlike some other despots – like Duvalier in Haiti – Burnham didn’t mind PPP supporters fleeing. It was a safety valve to rebellion – and possibly “splitting”.
The PPP has never been given enough credit for the sacrifices it and its supporters made for the survival of this nation called Guyana. After the 2020 rigging attempt by “kinder, gentler” PNC strongman Granger, he callously unleashed ethnic violence in West Berbice. If this had been met with counter violence, what would’ve been the result? Another civil war? It’s very clear the PNC and its camp followers give a damn about our survival as One Guyana.
Let’s heed the theme for this year’s Mash – “Expressing our Culture and Creativity as One Guyana”!!
…and politics
Even though we’ve been a nation for 55 years, some people complain we don’t have enough commonalities as a people to call ourselves “a nation”. Your Eyewitness got some problems with that claim. And he ain’t just talking about the foods we eat – roti, metemge, pepper pot, low-mein and garlic pork – or the songs we sing – soca and chutney. What about our OBSESSION with politics??
Even before we got independence, we Mudlanders were said to be “precocious” politically. That means that we were “fo’ce-ripe” when it came to politics! One of the problems, however, is we don’t talk enough politics TO EACH OTHER to discover our commonalities there! Most of the talk used to be done under “bottom houses” and of course this meant – with our segregated pattern of living – we were talking in echo chambers to “our own”. With social media and everyone having a smart phone as an arm extension, that’s now transmuted to only talking to “our friends”.
How about those long promised “national conversations”?
…and invitations
C’mon now!! Does Pressie and his govt really need the distraction created by the Ministry of Culture in again dissing the Opposition on the Republic Day flag-raising ceremony?? It’s not like the fella ain’t shaking hands!!
At least one head gotta roll.
