Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter from Mark DaCosta captioned ‘AFC should have planned, discussed before tossing “no-confidence” into the public domain’ (SN, July 24). Mr DaCosta, like many others in Guyana has made the personal sacrifice at great cost to be in this struggle for good governance. For that he must always be commended. However, Mr Da Costa’s situation cannot give him a passport to not accurately represent the paradigm under which this call was made, by none other than Moses Nagamootoo, MP.
The paradigm remains ‘living in the Guyanese working class.’ When the belly is empty, revelation happens. The spoken words of Cde Moses are timely advocacy for the people whose ‘bellies continue to burn,’ with no respite since 2011. This new political dispensation was expected to be impactful on the lives of those at the bottom of the economic ladder. However, the outcome to date has been sub-optimal at best. The poor and the working class continue to struggle daily against “breadless-ness, cent-less-ness and hopelessness.” For those of us who continue to live the truly suburban life of vacations, nice cars and so on, we cannot dare pretend to understand the paradigm in which these people continue to suffer. However, given the roots-man that he is, Cde Moses can truly identify and understand their suffering and has chosen to raise his voice. I respect his courage and that of his leader Mr Ramjattan and his party, the AFC, for doing something for those who most need a new opportunity.
Living in Guyana is not an afternoon tea at the Georgetown Club; it is tears, economic desperation, fear, personal insecurity and personal economic imbalance. Editor, I cross reference these comments with my personal correspondence with friends in Guyana, as well as SN’s ‘What the people say’ column, and ‘The world beyond Georgetown’ column, as well as Mr Jaipaul Sharma’s ‘Voice of the People’ TV programme and Mark Benschop’s FB Page with real life stories of “life pun de dam.” If anyone observes these pages of Guyana’s history, they will come to the conclusion that Cde Moses need not consult any petit-bourgeois group in calling for a vote of no confidence. His people desperately need a new lease of life and if the PNC/APNU choose to cut a deal with the PPP and abstain from the vote or vote against it, then they must also live with the political consequences of their parliamentary action.
This is the time for political maturity, and it is extremely important that all legal means be used to get rid of a government that is diplomatically irresponsible, reactive, vindictive, purposeless, self-serving, unfair, unjust, disrespectful, and manipulative.
With such a characterless government in place, what would the majority of the Guyanese people want: two more years of this vision-less and rudderless government or a no-confidence vote?
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh
