Living in Guyana, it’s easy to lose hope, in our leaders, in our institutions and our people. It diminishes with each new revelation of official corruption, each new failure by our systems to help our most vulnerable, and each new demonstration of how we have miseducated our young people, all increasingly filling our news streams.
You may have voted with hopes for better but our political system by its very nature is inadequate to meeting those expectations. It continues to perpetuate the crime that is governance without accountability, where democracy is redefined as ruling without consulting, without engagement and increasingly without transparency. Even in our communities, we continue to be shut out from participating in rebuilding our democracy from the grassroots level due to the absence of a functioning local government for almost two decades. As a result, in the intervening years between the general elections, we wrestle with the steady disappointments that are the hallmark of our politics and the alienation and apathy they inevitably foster.
You see it in the people walking around disinterested in important issues, such as crime and security, unemployment and corruption. As for hope, people barely mention the word—except when they talk about migrating. There seems to be near-overall consensus that it is futile to hope.
But I still hope. I know people who give me reason to hope. Just last week, I joined the walk for equality organised by the Guyana Equality Forum and I had an additional 300 reasons to hope.
The turnout was fantastic. It was refreshing to see certain faces in the crowd, including the Sisters of Mercy and an enthusiastic group of Catholic youths. There was also the young girl who led the walk while hoisting a large Guyana flag. She was no older than five years but insisted that she would carry the flag along the route without any assistance.
Before the walk, I had joined the vigils for Colwyn Harding and I was encouraged by the people who turned out to stand in solidarity with his mother. I remember approaching a police officer who was sent to monitor us one afternoon outside Georgetown Hospital and he told me that he understood why we were there. “I have children… I understand,” he said.
I am also encouraged by the ordinary people who wake up every day eager to engage a government that labels them “opposition” and “enemies” of progress. Ordinary people who shake off personal attacks and keep fighting to change the system. They remind me that though Guyana is struggling with so many issues, Guyana is home and if we give up on her, she could crumble. Indeed, the exodus of our skilled Guyanese who leave every year has already dealt this country a blow so severe it will take many, many years to recover, and that is only if the bleeding somehow stops.
To some, they are “government critics,” bent on dislodging the elected party from office and replacing it with “terrorists” in the opposition. But to me, they are ordinary citizens with extraordinary will, like Andaiye and Karen De Souza, who are crusaders for gender justice. Their leadership on the economic, social and political advancement of Guyanese women, their commitment to social justice, and their tenacity have inspired generations of women to find their voices and to be conscious of the issues that affect our development. You are unlikely to meet two women that are more unassuming; women who are knowledgeable about the issues on which they advocate to intimidating levels; and women who are constantly attacked for their activism but never breathe a word about it as they continue to fight for better.
And there are so many others out there that I have been fortunate to come into contact with. It’s difficult to list them all here but equally inspiring are the Sherlina Nageers, Vidyaratha Kissoons, Gino Persauds, Ruel Johnsons, Joel Simpsons and recently the Sarah Bharrats of our society. These are the people you meet and you automatically sense that they believe in the dream of a better Guyana and they are working towards it.
Take for example, Johnson, who has been dismissed as “bitter” and “too divisive.” But anyone who objectively reads his writings on the state of our democracy could find a framework for understanding what is wrong and what could be right. Do I agree with everything he says or how he says it? No. But I am aware of his voice and his commitment to hold our leadership accountable and I am encouraged to not lose hope.
While Kissoon exercises his democratic right not to vote and chose our government, he has never disconnected from the system. In fact, he is more actively engaged than most and has over the years given us reason to stay at home and help to build the Guyana we would like to live in.
It is likely that he has considered migrating but I have no doubt that if you ask him he would say, “I ain’t leaving this country.” He would also say that we have a collective responsibility as Guyanese to build a better society; a society that respects the rule of law, respects life and rights, and respects the advancement of our people.
And day after day, Kissoon and the others remind me that while it is okay to point fingers at the government and opposition parties for problems in the country, I should also have an interest in how these problems are tackled.
In sum, they teach us that the non-racial, non-discriminatory, equal society that we hope for with a government that is answerable and accountable to the people is not possible if we do not participate in shaping it. They remind us over the years that democratic elections are not the only means to bring about real change.
We cannot continue to act without sensitivity towards what is happening around us. Indeed, there is a toxic political air that surrounds us in this country and no matter how hard you try, inevitably, you inhale it. Some find it hard to breathe and to escape, they disconnect from the acrimony, every day rhetoric and the seemingly never ending cycle of things that have gone wrong.
But others are inhaling that air and building up stronger lungs to speak truth to power, and that is incredibly inspiring. The air gets fresher every time they breathe and I’d like to believe that every time they take a breath the wind blows and stirs up change.
Have a question or comment? Connect with Iana Seales at about.me/iseales
