Dear Editor,
I have no illusion, no singular revelation, no special moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand hurting moments as a resident and leader of God‘s people in Region 10 producing in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to see a system that divides people by reason of race defeated, and a desire to resist a system that has imprisoned the people of Region 10. There was no particular day on which I said, ‘from henceforth,’ but a daily accumulation of lawlessness and regulations which are crippling the economic growth of this town. We are at a point in time where to retreat means the continued imprisonment of the next generation, while to stand up in peaceful demonstrations draws the wrath of the national ‘untouchables.’ Are we being asked to roll over and pretend we are dead? Are we being asked to support a system that makes mendicants out of people?
After 1992 a steady avalanche of coordinated underdevelopment programmes were unleashed under cloaks of different shades, all intended to reduce a hardworking people to a plebian lifestyle where we pay homage to political rascality for handouts.
The hundreds of single mothers employed as security guards earning $100.00 an hour; young people languishing hopelessly with six and seven subjects at the CXC examination; fathers unemployed, reduced to endure the daily anguish of children calling on them, “Daddy you have to do something we are hungry.” Churches now run daily feeding programmes in a region that once supported other parts of Guyana. There is indignation when one subverts one‘s own conscience to pretend one supports the dictators to get a ‘bite.‘ The local crumbling infrastructure now stands as an elegy to a region that once enjoyed the good life.
Where are the economic programmes, the sustainable development activities that other regions enjoy? Why aren‘t Lindeners allowed to have a television station? Something about this region has caused men and women to be enveloped by spirit of manic depression and depravity. Seraphic fields where we played games as youths in the ‘bad old days‘ today are a picture of abandonment.
The scorched earth programme has taken its toll, producing a daily ‘hustle‘ for survival. Poverty not only robs one of one’s freedom but takes away one’s true identity. Everyone wears the same frown, eats the same swill, follows the same punitive schedule. All human beings are called upon to fight a system that dehumanizes people.
The day came when the shackles became too heavy, the day when the government declared that there will be a gradual increase in electricity rates from 5% to 400%. Only fools venture where angels fear to tread. Even in times of war and galloping inflation such an increase is unheard of.
But this is Region 10. When one stares into the face of one’s own children and visualizes a future where things increase by 400%, the time has come to stand up and declare that the wealth of Guyana belongs to all Guyanese, including Region10; that our people have been robbed of an equal share from the national treasury; that we have equal rights to land, liberty and peace under a form of government founded on equal rights and justice; that our region will never find the prosperity we seek until all our people live free, enjoying a democratic system where putting up a TV station does not involve political miscreants; where we determine our local leaders, CDCs and Regional Democratic Council officers; where the political arm of corruption does not influence land selection.
All we desire is to live in a plural and democratic environment. Hence we the people of Region 10, all green, brown and yellow together – equals, brothers, sisters, friends and those near and far, pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing nothing of our strength and courage, until the unhappiness created by this PPP government has been removed.
We chose as a stand the Wismar-Mackenzie bridge – peaceful, singing, hoping to God that this too will pass when the unthinkable happened: women, children, the elderly, pastors and even those who were in their office compound came under sustained bursts of gunfire. History shows that even death doesn’t deter other men and women when their conscience is aroused. We have paid a price and the struggle continues.
I close knowing well that the oppressor too must be liberated. Any government which holds hostage the freedom and rights of another is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness and needs also to be free, as both the oppressor and the oppressed alike are robbed of their humanity. To all Guyanese, the struggle in Region 10 continues.
Yours faithfully,
Renis Morian MP
Region 10
