People across this land go about their daily life oblivious to the shenanigans of their Members of Parliament, who this week engage each other in an exercise filled with acrimony, strife and distrust.
In fact, citizens conducting their business in the city complain about the gross inconvenience and traffic chaos they endure because of the budget debate at the House, because the police cordon off the streets around Parliament Buildings.
Strange it is that people see their Parliament as more inconveniencing and interrupting their daily lives, than making a significant and meaningful contribution.
Talking to people across the country, from Berbice to the City, in villages and on the street, about their national budget, produces a sceptical and passive shrug of helplessness about a process that lacks their engagement.
In fact, the democratic ideal of people, parliament and government lacks dynamic engagement in this nation. The three pillars of our democratic foundation see each other with distrust, and engage through strife and acrimony.
And this saps the energy of the people, producing instead a frustrated passiveness.
Instead of seeing leaders stand up in Parliament to inspire the nation and drive the creative energy of the people towards economic and social enterprises of transformational value, we see citizens bent on building their own life, feeling their leaders care little about their individual world.
House Speaker Raphael Trotman, in keeping with his policy of reaching across the divides to bridge the gaps keeping our nation down, wrote President Donald Ramotar inviting him to address the nation from the forum of the National Assembly.
What a golden opportunity this is, to outline a Presidential vision and a clear direction for us as a people. The President could use this platform to touch the heart and soul of this nation, to provide the catalyst for engagement, to reach out to embrace citizens, to bring his government and its message to the people.
Instead our President shuns parliament, and manages the national affairs through his closed Cabinet. Thus, the people see him, his government, and their MPs as alien and distant figures.
Across the land, people wake up every day and work hard – farming, mining, living industrious lives contributing to their society’s growth. Yet, most just live wrapped up in personal concerns.
The President reaches out to the electoral base of the ruling party, but refuses to stand on the Parliamentary platform to give life and vision to a national dream.
Citizens, therefore, disengage from the democratic process.
A vibrant society, where debate, engagement, and participation happens across the board, where everyone becomes a dynamic contributor, or at least feels the opportunity is there, becomes alive with potential and possibilities.
Of course we have free media outlets, but even citizens writing letters and seeking to engage our leaders through the mass media run into a stony silence, and contemptuous non-engagement from their leaders. Few even answer letter writers to the newspapers, except to defend themselves.
Citizens feel their Government and Parliament are not too concerned about solutions from the people . People know best how to solve the problems they face. Empowered with access, engagement and committed concern to their MPs and Ministers would grant them the confidence to transform local development. Citizens would live with so much more confidence. Instead, all they see is their Parliament engaging on what concerns the authorities. Every year the national budget generates endless debate. Yet, what concerns the people, like local government elections, take a distant back seat.
Guyanese living in the Diaspora know what it means to engage their political leaders. In Canada, for example, anyone could meet with their local MP. Each MP maintains a local office in his or her community, and it’s always open to members of the constituency.
In the US, access to Congressional leaders is easy, with email, phone and mailing contact information readily available.
Here in Guyana, people meet with their leaders by chance, instead of the democratic system providing a ready forum of access for them.
As we seek to identify the root causes of what keeps us down as a nation, to why we remain locked in this second decade of the 21st century as a poor society, ranked still with Haiti and Nicaragua, we must look at every facet of how our society functions.
We cannot just go about our existence blissfully ignoring the fact that we are the way we are because of certain reasons.
We must find those reasons. We must keep looking and searching, diligent in our quest, authentic and sincere in our efforts.
And one of those reasons clearly is the lack of dynamic engagement between citizens, their Parliament and their government.
In fact, the deeper reason is that Guyanese feel disengaged from the process that governs them.
That feeling, that national sense of being too small to make a difference, is a key and telling reason why we remain a nation lagging behind the rest of the Caribbean.
So if we want to rise on the world stage, we must develop a political process that actively seeks the engagement of the Guyanese people. We must cultivate their interest and concern on matters of the national budget, the Auditor General’s annual report, and on such issues as the state of their local governments.
We cannot continue to tolerate a society filled with passive, disengaged citizens. Guyanese must care, and must see this land as their own, as a place where they have a dynamic role in governance.
It starts with leadership, and with the Head of State showing the way, embracing the Parliament, honouring its platform, speaking from its hallowed halls to the nation.
It starts with the Budget debate generating energy and passion among the people to launch new enterprises, to dream big dreams, to cultivate new vision, to tackle the task of developing the Guyanese nation with zeal and hard work.
We must all see the Democratic process as a playground where each of us has a dynamic, important and valuable role to make Guyana successful.
Engagement among citizens, MPs and Government constitutes the crucial foundation to build this nation.
We see the fruits of this in the developed world.
And engagement starts at the seat of power in this country – at our Parliament, and through the Presidency. Engagement between the two could do so much to instill in citizens that necessary spirit of embracing the national development processs.
As citizens largely ignore the current budget debate, let’s hope that our leaders would come out of the process wiser and able to empower citizens with the power of national engagement, instead of the passive distrust that now cripples our national conversation.
