Dear Editor,
President Obama currently on a visit to the Caribbean would know that Guyana, like so many other developing countries, is in a crisis. But Guyana is one of the world’s modern political tragedies. Its crisis has its origin nearly fifty years ago and continues because of the country’s imprisonment in a pernicious Westminster political system where governance is based on a principle of ‘executive dominance’ administered by an executive President who, in and out of office, is not subject to the laws of the country.
The application of this principle has resulted in deepening racial division; it has promoted and nurtured ethnic voting; it has created fertile ground for criminalized economic activity; it has institutionalized the rewards from illicit drugs and has established violence and extra-judicial killings as the principal means for resolving conflicts and differences. Executive lawlessness prevails in all aspects of Guyanese life.
Perhaps the recent and most appropriate metaphor for our condition is an event now unfolding in the courts of New York that involves Roger Khan, the most notorious of Guyanese drug lords. Khan has pleaded guilty to eighteen charges laid by US prosecutors. Long before his guilty plea, Khan paid for a full-page advertisement in the local newspapers in which he amazingly claimed that he helped sections of the Guyana Police Force to fight crime during 2002.
One of our leading economists, Clive Thomas, publicly articulated the dilemma with which all citizens, irrespective of race, religion or social status are fully familiar. He said, “There is the existence of a cabal or coterie of persons comprised mainly, but not exclusively, of selective crime bosses, state officials, security personnel, elements of the criminal justice system and political bosses, advisors and other insiders.” “This group,” he contended, “commands considerable economic wealth and wields enormous power. The ruling elite, located above the reaches of domestic law, presents itself as leading the process of political change, promoting of respect for law and order and creating [a place for] public safety and human security.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, long an advocate for political and social change in Guyana, just five years ago terminated his organization’s activities in Guyana when he said, “Of all the countries I have visited in the world, Guyana has the most unrealized potential [and] although my faith in the Guyanese people remains, it has been a sobering visit. Except among a few political party leaders, there have been almost universal expressions of concern about the present condition and future hopes of Guyana, based on a failure of political leaders to heal the incompatibility and animosity that characterize their relationship.”
The response by our citizens to their chronic predicament is not surprising. Victimization, corruption and fear have transformed Guyanese into regional and global nomads with more citizens living in foreign lands than at home. Eighty-three percent of the graduates from our tertiary education system now live and work overseas.
Guyana is a land of grotesque contradictions. A recent study on women by a respected human rights organization highlights one of our distortions. The study’s findings show that in a country of vast economic potential “Women report being sexually assaulted by fathers, step-fathers, husbands, uncles, child-fathers and in-laws; by neighbours, teachers and religious leaders; by employers, taxi-drivers and bus conductors; by members of the police and armed forces; by medical personnel and entertainers. Such assaults [take] place in the home, school, workplace, religious institutions, sports clubs, bars and night clubs, on public transportation, in shops, markets and in police lock-ups.”
The most recent United Nations view of Guyana can be found in the March 16, 2009 report of the United Nations Independent Expert on Minorities. Ms Gay McDougall warned that “ethnic divisions entrenched in society could escalate into violence” and has urged the Guyana government to take urgent steps towards national reconciliation, including the establishment of an open dialogue on inclusive governance. Ms McDougall also stated that “every level of the Guyanese society is permeated by profound moral, emotional and political fatigue arising out of the impact of ethnic polarization.
Guyana’s leaders are paralyzed by ethnic memories of dominance, the lack of emotional intelligence and a special type of heartlessness that is surpassed only by their intellectual shortcomings. They are visionless and indifferent to the concept of human rights. The opposition is also visionless.
Only a civil society-led, shared governance model can rescue this deepening human tragedy. Shared governance is a fundamental human right for all Guyanese but unenlightened leadership prevents this. I hope that the US administration will speak to all funding agencies in the USA as well as the World Bank, IDB and others, where it has influence, to ensure a thriving civil society and to ensure racial equity in their programmes. Guyana should not receive any more funds unless its human rights problems are addressed.
I wish President Obama all the very best in his forthcoming deliberations at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain. I am pledged to support his every effort and committed to assisting in making our country and our region a better and more just and secure place for all our citizens.
Yours faithfully,
Eric M. Phillips
