In the elections season Guyanese should raise the bar above the personal, racial, etc

Dear Editor,

In what has been referred to as ‘the crazy season’ of elections in Guyana, I find Mr Ralph Seeram’s article in last Sunday’s KN not only ‘crazy’ but very unfortunate in its failure to appreciate the need for new initiatives to break the logjam that has been stifling national progress in recent years, even as admitted by the government of the day.

Mr Seeram and I share a friendship that goes back to high school days but that does not preclude our entitlement to different political views or approaches to national issues. However, what I find most detestable is the degeneration of his presentation into such an acute personal attack on Mr Moses Nagamootoo.

I am no politician, nor do I belong to any political party, but I am sufficiently aware that in a democracy we need politicians who can bring to the table varying philosophies, experiences and approaches to deal with seemingly intractable governmental issues. People like Mr Nagamootoo, and of course numerous others like him on all sides of the several political divides in Guyana, have paid their ‘political dues’ over decades of hard work and sacrifices. They deserve our admiration, not admonition, for staying the course. I think it is unfair, unjust and reprehensible to launch personal attacks on such persons for advocating what they consider to be potential solutions for Guyana’s seemingly intractable problems of good governance and equitable treatment of our many competing communal interests.

I take this opportunity to beg all our fellow Guyanese (here and in the diaspora) to please raise the bar above the personal, racial, ethnic, religious or other such divisive levels so that the electorate can make informed voting decisions based on objective, pragmatic issues, competencies, integrity and credibility, as opposed to who can ‘cuss down’ the most.

Yours faithfully,
Nowrang Persaud