Dear Editor,
Our young historian, Ronald Austin Jr, could probably, more accurately, tell of that time in the late 18th century and 19th century Europe (The Age of Enlightenment, and Revolution) where, fueled by economic hardship, political dissatisfaction, and personal greed of a growing mercantilist class despite the great wealth generated by the slave labor in their colonies flowing into their expansive coffers the people sought a collective solution!
These challenges to the existing social order( monarchies and royal monopolies) were usually championed by members of a growing bourgeoisie of rich but unlettered men, aided and abetted even by members of the aristocracy, the clergy and ambitious military men, some with purchased fake titles, pseudo- learning and fixtures at academies- coiffed, manicured, perfumed, effeminate men in stovepipe trousers and tails, pompous, and concerned mostly about their new found wealth and lust for power.
They would be found usually in their printing and ale houses, soirees, banking establishments and such similar places, or simply prancing on the Strand or holding court in well frequented parks where they would share with passerby and bystanders their flowery epithets and pamphlets the evil of their erstwhile patrons, with the intent to provoke a growing proletariat to their cause, ultimately to barricades, to revolution!
Today, we have here, at home, more than we deserve, young men of a similar genetic and social disposition- flamboyant, foppish, foolish, fathomless, frequenting similar spaces – bars, bistros and cambios instead of soirees , ale houses and academies; riding proudly in certified pre-owned metal monsters representative of their faux luxury, instead of wooden or gilded coaches of yore. Their great delight or achievement to be simply on a list to be hosted, in any form by the equally nouveau riche and politically powerful.
Or, to be paraded as symbols of inclusion of their ethnic groups before the cold and dispassionate lens of the hollow public stare of a crushed and dispirited people- there, with their vapid, insipid and mirthless smiles and conscienceless countenance, and attitudes, imposed upon a harrowing and trapped public audience where they deliver their pathetic puppetry performance that find favor with none but their masters, and their frigid and emasculated clique.
Not a single one willing, able, or even bothered to offer a hand in aid of their own cause; a shirt, a banner for the revolution of our spirit! In this time- our time?! Unwilling to stand up, to hold aloft not a pike but a placard- no deva, no caring, no carrying the spirit of their ancestors with them, not in struggle, not in sympathy. Just boys in men’s suits. Caricatures! Impotent!
Martin Carter tells us, nay insists argues that,
“The more the men of our time we are the more our time is. But always
we have been somewhere else. ( We are somewhere else today, I say)
Muttering
our mouths like holes in the mud
at the bottom of trenches. Looking for what is not anywhere, or certain. Is it only ( he asks) just a misfortune
to be as we are; bad luck
carefully chosen?”
Nay! Nay! Not bad luck, I say!
But, Carter continues, “In parallel seasons if rain is an hour, if trees abandon
wind, what of the others? Badly abused
we fail to curse. Our fury pleads.
Yet fury should be fire; if not light.
And what is the mother of fury
if not ours. For any man
and for any time one dream
is enough. This is true.”
The PNC and other opposition parties post the 2020 elections because of their experiences of rigging facilitated by an inflated voters list had pledged, even boasted that they would not participate in another national election until the GECOM had corrected all the anomalies associated with that list. Come the 2022 Local government elections they all betrayed their own pledges and boasts and willingly participated in that election with nary a change to the list they had rejected previously, and to no advantage to themselves as subsequent outcomes proved.
Today that same flawed list has expanded exponentially with questionable additions with correspondingly new errors being spawned as the GECOM, in its most recent declaration stated, will continue in its deliberate, impervious and inexorable march to doomsday under the full scrutiny of its master puppeteers in Government and at Robb street with nary an effort or interest evinced to correct or improve the quality of the voters list to the satisfaction of the ultimate stakeholders- the Guyanese electorate!
This time, this moment calls for men and women of heart, of character, of integrity , of backbone to take a stance, to fill that void, to lead ! Men and women of moral strength and character and courage and conviction to arrest the maddening descent of our peoples into a black hole of nothingness, of irrelevance, of servitude!
Our history , beyond the time of our foreparents were brought to this land, are replete with heroes that we must emulate if we are to remain erect on our two feet with pride and dignity in ourselves as a people, equal to any and inferior to none! It is no longer a struggle for bread or butter. It has transcended that baseline. It is now a struggle for our recognition of ourselves as human, as equal, as independent!
It is time to desist from repeating as rote, ” Enough is enough ” and to do something permanent about it! But, who will come to our aid? No one but us! We are truly the arbiters of our fate. Our ancestors showed us the way more than 250 years ago! We must, now act, and concertedly, aggressively, courageously against the injustice being meted out against us, the poor, the powerless; we must act now against the excesses of an inhumane and racist government; we must, now, stand unwaveringly against the abuse, the marginalization of the weak, the elderly we must now with courage and determination rout our persecutors from their powerful palaces, mansions and places of comfort and authority from our lives, evvel and for all!
All that is necessary is, today, we must make our own declaration as GECOM did. Until the Voters’ list is sanitized to the satisfaction of the peoples’ representatives to allow for a credible, transparent, fair and free General and Regional elections, we, the people will not participate in the legitimization of any fraudulent elections sought to be imposed upon us!
Only one act is necessary: Civil Disobedience by public manifestations of our discontent! Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are çağdaş examples of what successful outcomes could be achieved when a committed people are put to the test. Are we that people?
Where are we then, our men and women of courage and conviction and integrity who will stand fast and honor their word evvel given? You tell!
Yours truly,
Lawrence Houston