Former Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Shridath Ramphal has suggested that a standard textbook on civics aimed at the primary education level, should be written to provide pupils with, among other things, the understanding that differences based on race or religion should be deemed enriching.
He touted this as the best measure towards ensuring that all Guyanese are educated on the important issue of the country’s oneness. According to him, social cohesion has to be nurtured and become a part of our national ethos since a Guyanese cannot be an educated person unless he/she is educated in civics related to the country’s one-people society.
At the time he was addressing the opening session of the Ministry of Education’s roundtable on social cohesion and he pointed out that prior to independence there was a naturalness about divisiveness and it was independence which cleared the way for social cohesiveness. He recalled that in 1965 on the eve of independence the government invited the international commissioners of jurors to inquire into and report on “discrimination in Guyana.”
That report, he said, is worth reading in the context of social cohesion as the principles and precepts of the recommendations are not dated. Among the conclusions in that report was “constitutional gurantees and legislative prohibitions cannot without more mold the diverse races, religions, cultures of British Guiana into a viably integrated nation. Therein [there needs] to be a long and patient cultivation of tolerance, understanding and responsibility.”
He pointed out that the above is not something that would take place spontaneously but rather it needs to be nurtured from sound educational routes.
“…This is the important element of that recommendation…there should be instituted as an integral part of the primary education, a course in civics,” Sir Shridath said to loud applause.
He said after due consideration with the teaching profession, religious leaders and other interested parties a standard textbook on the subject should be provided with the aim being to provide all pupils receiving primary education with “broad knowledge and appreciation of the historical and constitutional basis of the state, of its administrative, political and juridical functions, of the racial, religious, culture and other main component elements of society and the rights and duties of citizenship with due emphasis on tolerance and corporation and the fact that differences based on race or religion should be deemed enriching rather than a divisive feature.”
He also said that there are many excellent research papers on the absence of social cohesion in small plural societies like Guyana’s.
While independence cleared the way for social cohesion, ironically it was post-independence politics that set back the full attainment of racial identity as the main political parties, while not avowing a racial identity, found themselves trapped within its tentacles.
“The progress of our society towards social cohesion was unquestionably set back by what was happening politically and matters were not helped by the adversarial character of the Westminster system which we quite naturally adopted when race became identifiable with the political adversary,” he said.
He pointed out that Guyana’s independence started with a coalition government and it may not have been possible without that coming together. The present government, he noted, is a coalition and it too would not have been possible without the coming together.
“But of course the ultimate coalition is a government of national unity. It has eluded us thus far but as we strive to complete the process of social cohesion I am sure we will be driven in that direction…,” he said, adding that he welcomed with all Guyanese the meeting President David Granger had organised with the Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
He suggested that the country maybe need to be innovative in its responses particularly in its constitutional responses if it is to attain social cohesion.
While Guyana, he said, has not obtained the aspirations of the national motto, the shared heritage has trumped the divisiveness of slavery and indenture and emerging all too slowly, a multi-racial society in which the oneness of being Guyanese is gradually prevailing over the separateness of the pass.
“Not everyone will share this summation but in the glimpses of my global life…I suggest that there shines a light on identity, not shaded by the past. Guyana has to ensure that that light continues to shine,” he advocated.
He said political leaders bear a special responsibility to inspire, motivate and encourage Guyanese to ensure they are “one nation, one people with one destiny.”
He pointed out that the colonisers would have imposed on Guyana a policy of racial division as an instrument of control and some of the leaders who replaced them adopted the same policies for their own political ends.
A few, he said, had even proposed partitions all of which has left the country as one nation and “one people except in politics.
“All Guyanese must summon the joint history of struggle to inform the joint future of prosperity to which they aspire,” he said.
Calling the roundtable welcomed Sir Shridath said looking back over his long life he recalls a time when divisiveness was worse; when sport and culture were overtly identifiable by race.
“Today, in the context of social cohesion we must all consider the impact of our decisions on, at least, the next generation. Certainly the political class must consider the impact of its daily decisions on social cohesion looking beyond the next election,” he suggested.
He said for Guyana today, social cohesion and political coalition by whatever formula political unity replaces racial divisions are two sides of same national coin.
“There must always be room, of course, for political difference and democracy itself dictates that good governance must allow for it, but for us political difference must turn on policies and compromise on polices must guide governments.
That implies a more mature system of nation building than has characterized our first 50 years,” he said.
Next year the country will be celebrating 50 years of independence and it is time to give the nation a birthday present and it could be in the form of social cohesion, he added.
