Dear Editor,
I remember, once when I visited London, I went to Hyde Park to hear a promi-nent Guyanese talking out against the Thatcher admi-nistration. There was a huge gathering of people, both black and white from all over the world, standing there to hear him speak. He was my Indo-Guyanese brother whom I grew to appreciate, love and respect very much. That day, he stood there, suave, elo-quent and full of negative diatribe for the British government. He was never condemned, banned or arrested. This, for him, was a regular pastime for which he had quite a reputation. For the British, this was a right and a norm in which anyone could engage.
My friend was a foreigner in a strange land. I wish there were more like him today who would invest the same interest in the country of their birth as they would in foreign countries of their residence.
In any society there will be people for and against a government. They will surface at all levels of society from time to time. There will even be members of the same party or government who are opposing each other because of a prevailing issue or circumstance. It is a good sign when they vent their feelings. It shows that democracy is alive and healthy.
From this place where I live, there are organizations and support groups that are run just to scrutinize and find faults with other groups and organizations. These help to make those under scrutiny cleaner, stronger, more creative in their struggle for excellence. In democracies they are seen as assets. In dictatorships they are dis-couraged, harassed and put to death.
And then, there is the press, that very prestigious group in a nation which makes people aware of the times in which they live, the good and bad affecting a society. It gives the people a sense of what leaders are doing and the leaders a sense of how people are thinking. It is a mighty powerful force that is essential for the growth and development of a people and a nation. It may not seem so but these two are intrinsi-cally linked. One may rub the other the wrong way from time to time, but they are brothers in the battle for a clean, peaceful, and united society.
They don’t have to be friends, but isn’t it good when they can enjoy a decent relationship, one of integrity and respect?
Yours faithfully,
Pastor Kwesi Oginga
