Secession is not a substitute for criticism

BY Staff
Published: November 22, 2008 in Letters

Dear Editor,
Many new governments commence governing with timidity and then over the years they become emboldened and completely forget their humble beginnings. That first day in office, when they were overwhelmed with the magnitude of the position and responsibility they found themselves in become distant. If only we the people could have kept them humble and appreciative of their achievements and the gift of governing that has been thrust upon them. If only we could have sent a constant reminder that the first days in office they were seen as altruistic and well meaning.

The above can be applied to many governments, including the current Government of Guyana − a government that gloats over the killing of criminals, wrongly thinking that such a public display will serve as a deterrent to future criminals. A government that is unsophisticated in its disdain for many who oppose them. A government that refuses to investigate allegations about the misdeeds of any of its officials. A government that is content to arrest and imprison dissidents, only to release them when it is presumed that they have learnt a lesson. A government that feels so entrenched in its feathered position, that it is oozing with confidence that it will not be replaced.

Today in Guyana we see the frustration with this government surfacing in comments that it may be best if a section of Guyana secede from the rest of the country. No thought is given to our forefathers who slaved, protested and died to preserve the freedoms the secessionists now enjoy. No thought is also given to those whose families have lived there for generations and are against seceding. Many in Guyana feel that the current government is inept and lacks the foresight to effectively spur development, but instead of criticizing the government, some are content to seek separation from Guyana. As the population and the economic and social pressure grows, migration has served as a release easing the deteriorating social conditions manifested in an increasing crime rate that has now become the norm.

Guyana endured twenty-eight years of the PNC without any sustainable and significant development. The waste of those years has caused a cascade of criticism from many sectors and persons. Now, quietly the PPP is approaching two decades of governing with nothing to show, other than the Skeldon sugar factory, an entity which will contribute very little to the development of the nation.

Many have grown old awaiting some form of development, but since independence those very people have known nothing other than quasi-dictatorships that have made overt promises that could never be kept, because the operatives in government change their positions not long after taking office. So instead of seeking solutions, and criticizing the government even when we lend support, we now give thought to embarking on a secessionist expedition that will eventually lead to mayhem and destruction.
Yours faithfully,
Patrick Barker

Comments

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15 Comments

M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett says:

November 22, 2008 at 6:31 am

Arite, Patrick, no needed to get heated under the collar. Secession in Guyana is like a rocking horse, all rock and no horse. Tek it easy, bhai.

Reply
- Johan says:
  
  November 22, 2008 at 6:01 pm
  
  ‘bhai’
  
  I tried using this concoction in a piece I’m working on and ran into gridlock. ‘Bhai’ seems to mean ‘brother’ in Hindi (Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai: India and China are brothers). It’s also a sikh title (Bhai Varinder Singh, etc) and a festival of Northern India (Bhai Dooj) with links to Diwali. I ended up using ‘boai’ which just doesn’t look right.
  
  Any word on that creolese dictionary people were talking about? I love our creolese. It is one of the few things that are TRULY Guyana. No one had to teach it to us, and none of us has any difficulty following it regardless of its spelling permutations. Like all ahwe, it baan and grow deh.
Johan says:

November 22, 2008 at 7:24 am

It’s not true that the PPP has ‘nothing to show other than the Skeldon sugar factory’. There is a level of gun violence in Guyana today that WAS NOT THERE UNDER THE PNC. (And before anyone brings up the ’slow fire, mo fire’ business, let’s remember that citizen safety is PRIMARILY the responsibility of the govt.) So the choice between these two parties is like between starvation and a bullet, although I don’t recall anyone actually starving to death under the PNC. If anything, it made us more creative.

Now so far I’ve seen just one person call for secession. And a few bloggers, of course, gave a kind of skeptical support. But the ‘buyer’s remorse’ implicit in this discussion is obvious. People VOTED for this govt. And now, instead of holding its feet to the fire, they want to quietly walk away as if they never had anything to do with it. And that, I believe, is the real problem. The problem of RESPONSIBILITY.

If we are not responsible for keeping our elected officials honest, then why should they be responsible to us? Let’s all eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow… You know the rest.

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Joe Coxall says:

November 22, 2008 at 8:24 am

Mr. Barker, you have struck the hammer on the nail in eloquent fashion. I can sense the resentment and frustration of Mr. Roopnarine in his call for secession, but that is not the answer nor solution.

Political leaders have a poor track record of development of any kind, that is why they have a host of economic advisers and ministers. Here in the USA, development came by such illuminaries as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates. etc.

Another myth is that Guyana has a lot of natural resources, no we do not, we have some but there are no great demand for our resources, because they are in no short supply.

Since I was about 10 years of age, I was told that the population in Guyana was approx 700,000. It is still that way today. So what is the problem? The problem is hyperinflation. The same population now need a larger supply of money to merely exist.

There has been no new factories and most of the development has been along the line of the service sector economy.

What we do have is lots and lots of land, rain and sunshine, these are the basic elements needed for sustained living. In Israel the residents form settlements known as Kubbutz whereby they go into the arid regions and develop whole communities based on shared services. In Chinatown here in New York, the shop shelves are filled with dried fish the size of my fingernails all the way to a yard long, including dried snails, which is a very expensive delicacy here in the USA. They also have pickled and dried everything.

I have seen pictures on the internet of Splashmins, what a beautiful place- that has been created out of the jungle.

I saw a documentary of a logger right here in America who use horses instead of trucks to haul his logs out of the woods. He said he saves on gas and the horses do not destroy young saplings as trucks would.

There are portable sawmills selling here in the USA for about three thousand dollars. A good mulcher costs about a thousand dollars.

So lets put the pieces together, the government should survey large areas of land next to the creek areas, and come up with a blue print for organised occupation, this settlement should have a large area set aside for lifestock rearing and community development using the Splashmin model, of landscaping.

Start the project nearest to the city environs for convenience and support then allow others to develop outwards. Cut the trees and convert them into boards right there on site. Mulch the branches for compost.

Raise fish and dry every one of them that are not immediately used. Set up a carpentery workshop to build homes, teach the children Google Sketchup, which is a free programme that can be downloaded from the internet, that allows you to build accurate home designs in 3D. Teach them practical agriculture instead of textbook western style agriculture, it has no immediate practical use unless you can obtain their equipment, chemicals and fertilizers.

I read that there are some companies that are teaching a few kids to use various computer programmes, Xcel, Word etc. these are of little use to the kids if there are no jobs.

These kids will do better with MIcrosoft Project and Sketchup. These two programmes are practical and can be applied immediately to village development and efficiencies.

The president keeps lamenting about climate change and the environment. There is nothing wrong with the climate or environment in Guyana, I saw many pictures on the internet of the flooded areas, that has nothing to do with climate change, it has everything to do with chocked gutters, drains and canals.

People has become so disillusioned that it is no wonder that Mr. Roopnarine wants to seperate himself from the rest of the country. Many people of the Caribbean and now hanging their only hope on the first black President of the USA. We cling on to the campaign slogan “Yes we can” like a life preserve jacket.

For all of us Guyanese the question is “Yes we can- Do what?”

Guyana needs a pioneering effort into sustainable living, we have the main ingredients that is land, rain, sunshine and lots of youth muscle. The only thing missing is the leadership and innovated thinking to push this proccess forward.

Joe.

Reply
- M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett says:
  
  November 22, 2008 at 9:00 pm
  
  Ur geography wrong joe. splasmins was never in a jungle. was always in the hilly sand and clay regions, not jungle.
- Johan says:
  
  November 24, 2008 at 5:37 am
  
  Just sand and ‘bagasse’, actually. Madewini Creek right beside the L’S highway. But the highway cuts through what was certainly once a jungle, so…
  
  Splashmins was a tricky move environmentally speaking. But apart from that, I’m all for this kind of development. Anything to get us to better utilize our country and at the same time, ease the congestion along the coastline.
  
  Guyana may not be as resource-rich as we think, but it has enough to be better off that it is. I’ve always believed that the only thing Guyana truly lacks is an excuse.
- Satish says:
  
  November 26, 2008 at 4:58 pm
  
  Whilst I do not agree with Patrick Barker’s and Mr Roopnarine’s earlier proposal for partition of Guyana; it is clear that Patrick Barker enjoys the gift of freedom of speech and thought. He should at least be pleased about that.
  
  You make an excellent case Joe Coxall for responsible development and enjoyment of the underdeveloped areas and I guess you may aspire to be one of the Woodstock Flower-Power folk! However human beings are terribly unpredictable and MESSY so even though the development plan you advocate is very nice; the devil is in the detail of implementation.
  
  Two examples:
  1 The Amerindians are gaining in lobbying strength and if they have their way, (although they only form 7percent of the population) they would claim ownership of about 70percent of Guyana.
  
  2 The PNCR and the PPP cannot work together. In fact if one said the sky was blue; I am sure the other would disagree.
  
  Nice plan Joe; shame ’bout the people!
Andy says:

November 22, 2008 at 8:57 am

Like I said, the secession advocate Roopnarine is unpatriotic, ungrateful, insensitive, immature and most of all, very selfish.

He was born into a country that had its borders in tact, and he could travel freely. Now that he thinks Berbice deserves better (as though the ENTIRE country doesn’t), he wants it to secede. He doesn’t understand that the PPP government’s treatment of Berbice mirrors the way it treats all of Guyana. Everything is done ti impree Guyanese so the PPP looks good; not necessarily that Guyanese are satisfied!

With this reality, the best thing for all Guyanese to do then is to secede from the PPP!

Reply
Caesar Agustus says:

November 22, 2008 at 5:00 pm

I totally agree with whoever wants to seceed. One has to learn to move beyond the boundaries of the normal thinker’s world. If you are unhappy in a relationship, the right thing to do is to break that relationship.

Reply
Ulric says:

November 22, 2008 at 7:34 pm

Mrr. Barker’s major premise is that elected Governments fail to keep their pre- election promises. That is no surprise. He then cites what may be considered minor hic-cups in the performance of these Governments, but more specifically the Government of Guyana, constantly dredging up old wounds to make his point, and to argue against cession of Berbice from Guyana, as advocated by a demented blogger. We bloggers are citizens of Guyana. Some refer to those of us residing outside of Guyana, who quite often provide differing views on domestic(Guyana)issues from those residing in Guyana as” outsiders”. Nevertheless, we are all concerned about the direction our Government. And so are Guyanese at home. They do not simplify the socio-cultural and socio-political
impact on their everyday lives;they complain;they protest;they march; they agitate their labor unions to strike; they open businesses, and yes, they migrate. And when they do they take skills with them, that were provided free of cost by the very Government against whom they protested. Democracy in action. The Government of Guyana cannot do every thing for its citizens; it cannot assume full responsibility for the quality and quanty of every citizen’s life. Listen to America’s Obama as he admonishes parents to turn off TV’s. NoMr. Barker you are wrong to assert that the Skeldon sugar factory is the only “entity” of development that the Government has offered in its two decades of governing. I was in Guyana two months ago, and I implore you to visit then give us bloggers a true evaluation of the Government’s development program. Just a couple years ago the operative word in some political circles was “PARTITION”, so it is understandable when some voice their frustation(be it demented) with the state of affairs.
Like Joe many of us have excellent ideas for leadership effectiveness and development. PUT YOUR MONEY WEH YUH MOUTH DEH. ISNM

Reply
- M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett says:
  
  November 22, 2008 at 8:58 pm
  
  was sydney king now eusi kwayan first proposed partition in the 1960s
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett says:

November 23, 2008 at 12:01 pm

bhai is Hindi for brother. Which dialect? Don’t know. But Creolese is a language produced by the intermingling of Hindi dialects, African dialects and English dialect. Creolese is NOT broken English whatever that is. It is a language in its own right with all the complexities and rules that any language has. However, unlike Standard English, the grammar and spelling of Creolese have not been standardized in a formal system. There are grammatical rules in rules, as complex as in SE, but they are not written down, A few UG people have done some research into Creolese and they usually spell the words phonetically using the standard English phonemes. If Creolese every becomes standardized it will be like modern Greek which is a phonetic language. SE, though, is not a phonetic language, that’s why spelling and pronunciation can be so maddening sometimes. Note that Greek, Hindi, Latin, Sanskirt and other Indo-European languages have very close relationships. Creolese is actually a recent branch of the IE language family.

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Ulric says:

November 23, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Yes, he did. He was indeed very frustrated with the way Government was doing business. The more things change, the more they remain the same. ISNM

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Joe Coxall says:

November 23, 2008 at 5:21 pm

M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett,
All of Guyana is a jungle, and the sand clay region that you speak about runs the length and breath of Guyana except for the coastline which has a clay mud topsoil.

Anyway the point I was trying to make is that the government need to subsidise this effort whereby groups of people can quickly set up selfsustaining villages, and produce all their needs in orderly fashion and in harmony with the environment instead of the haphazard way you see a half finished house here and there and an old zinc shack in between.

Joe

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M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hacket says:

November 24, 2008 at 4:47 pm

not even jungle, rainforest. wrong geography again. And not even ALL of Guyana, you forget the Rupununi Savannah unless you already give that up to Chavez.

Reply