Dear Editor,
One of the topical ideas embraced by news commentators about work related lifestyles in public office is the lean, clean and mean image articulated by Cde Cheddi following his inauguration speech in Oct 1992. It was indeed meant to contextualise the intentions of the new democratically elected PPP/C government, in contradistinction to the debilitating extravagance of the previously rigged PNC regimes, pre-1992, given the acknowledgedly bankrupt state that characterised the Treasury at the time. That was a time that goods, local and foreign, in particular, the common fare to which the population had become accustomed, were not available to the public at large. Over time, with prudent fiscal and macro-economic management, the financial balance sheet reflected incremental progress to the point where imports and local production were par for the course in every sphere of economic activity. Logically, this 1992 reservation appeared to lose its silver lining with the advent of a more prosperous economic climate upon a change of guard, and moreso, under President B Jagdeo in the early 2000s, when our economy was able to free itself from the barnacles associated with dependence upon the IMF and the World Bank, to a lesser extent. Programmes, once tethered to the structural harnesses of some international financial agencies, were locally driven by and large, without the impediments of supervision from overseas, blossomed exponentially, and provided the surplusage to which every Guyanese has access. It may be fair to state that vision without business sense is anathema to progress and gives currency to the expression that the private sector is the engine of growth. Embbedding the public-private partnership of the recent past places us on the eve of great fortune.
The construction sector, the social and education environment and the infrastructural development process saw enviable improvement leading to the expectation of the more comfortable accommodation and luxuries currently in vogue. Comparisons of the immediate post-1992 era with the post-2001 environment become otiose, if not odious, to the level of discourse which ought to ensue when confronted with the kind of unprecedented success experienced in the last decade. The return of democracy was never contemplated, or intended, to forestall an expectation of a better life or living standard equal to, or surpassing, that of sister Caribbean countries or even further afield, considering the inhospitable democratic climate and deprivations current at the time. The agenda of the few must be exposed by the majority of us whose reminiscences reflect our experience of the calamity of an earlier regime. In this more enlightened period, youths are less likely to do archival research, given their access to the tools of the Internet and the other IT equipment. It is therefore reasonable and understandable for the older generations to step in to prevent “mass myths, which in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships,” so advised the renowned Russian scientist, Andrei Sakharov. We also should not overlook the wise counsel of Alistair Cooke, who reminds us that “the best compliment to a child or a friend is the feeling you give him that he has been set free to make his own enquiries, to come to conclusions that are right for him, whether or not they coincide with your own.” Those destructive footprints on the sand of a time long gone by, must not be overlooked lest we fail to protect the youths who may be lured into a sense of false security from which they may never recover.
Growing up in a far gone era when parents and elders were inevitably the only source of information, young people were warned that leopards do not change their spots, whatever may be the environment! In this regard, reality is not lost, nor must it be allowed to fade away imperceptibly when the window of past events prised open by the return of a democratic ethos, remains intact for all to peer through in search of history. Guyanese must seize the opportunity to learn from both the good and bad if they are to move forward. Ironically, and quite unwittingly, some political antagonists lend powerful insights into their mindsets, as this confession of Dr David Hinds illustrates in his letter to Stabroek News of March 19. I quote, “Parties in opposition, especially those fighting dictatorship, generally become paragons of political virtue. After all, they are fighting against supposed political evil… Once they got into power, the scenario changed… In the process excesses and overreach were inevitable.” The cacophonous choreography of calumny directed at the government at this time of electoral competition is not unexpected, but it takes the democratic process to another level – downwards! The lessons of the past have not all been learnt by some Guyanese who are likely to be misled by the handful of operatives having exclusive access to some disgruntled media houses. These mindshapers represent a residue of the bourgeois Philistines, a description which a former President so rightly attributed to them but most of them are loathe to subject themselves to the rigours of elective office. Speaking for myself, and from the personal experience of being most fortunate to have served President Cheddi, President Janet and President Bharrat, as their principal legal adviser, I can safely say that progress was, at first, linear and, eventually, exponential. In the great sweep of history we must protect the advantage we have acquired by dint of industry if the molecular lattice of prosperity is not to dissipate into atomic destruction.
Yours faithfully,
Justice Charles R Ramson,
SC Attorney-General and
Minister of Legal Affairs (rtd)
