Grasping reality
The fact that the children of the two men who dominated our political life for most of the last fifty years live abroad is worthy of reflection. It hardly suggests that they have bequeathed us a sparkling legacy. Indeed, it strongly indicates that it is time for us to stop equivocating, deluding ourselves and refusing to grasp reality. Guyana has become one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. There was a massive exodus, which started in the fifties but accelerated in the sixties and thereafter and at the end of it all most Guyanese have half their close relatives living abroad. There is a demonstrably lower level of education than there was forty years ago. Because of prolonged political instability, increasingly authoritarian tendencies, the cult of the party card and declining living standards Guyana became an increasingly unpleasant place in which to live in the seventies and the eighties. Those who remained did so in most cases for reasons other than purely economic calculations. A genuine political debate about our future must be based on honest foundations. If we indulge in half truths, if we rewrite history, if we fail to grasp reality we cannot recognise the problems and start rebuilding. Unable to bear the chafe, the political dishonesty and bullying and the falling standards a very high percentage of our experienced, skilled persons and entrepreneurs left Guyana. The biggest problem today by far, that transcends politics, is the lack of experienced and well educated people capable of running the civil service, and managing institutions and performing important administrative and other functions. We have lost the knack of getting things done, efficiently or at all. The skill level is so low that it threatens to make the society unviable, whoever is in power. Can we persuade thousands of experienced and able Guyanese to return and participate in rebuilding? Perhaps, but we have to convince them that we are mature and serious enough to be trusted and believed in. There is a credibility gap. A credible plan must have several facets, the prospect of long term political stability, a pragmatic and open approach to economic development, a rethinking of our educational priorities. As a start to achieving the first of these the PNC should make an honest statement on its long years in power during which traditional democratic rights were destroyed. It would be a vital exercise, both for itself and the nation, a cathartic coming to terms with what took place in that period of virtual one party rule which had such a profound effect on all who lived here. The failure to come to terms with that heritage still hangs like a cloud over the conscience of the nation. Burnham was a nationalist with energy, intelligence and progressive instincts. But in his ruthless drive for power he strayed into devious paths and committed many wrongs. An honest statement of what was tried, what was achieved and what was done wrong could do so much to remove that brooding sense of grievance and injustice that still exists on the part of many who suffered and could vastly improve the political atmosphere. Then President Hoyte in fact from l986 onwards gradually dismantled substantial parts of the Burnham legacy. He did a Gorbachev, glasnost (free press and, eventually, free elections) and perestroika (a complete reversal of the failed economic policy of state ownership) but he never did a Khruschev, denouncing the misdeeds of Stalin in his l956 speech to the party congress - though it must be said at once that the misdeeds of Burnham were not even remotely comparable to those of Stalin, perhaps one of the two main mass murderers of the twentieth century. Guyana is at the moment still a far from attractive country in which to live because of the tensions that afflict it. Its image in our own sister territories in Caricom is that of a country which has lost its way, with a recalcitrant opposition unwilling to abide by the rules of democracy. That is not the whole truth but an effort is needed on all sides to grasp reality and to put our house in order.
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