Dear Editor,
The other day I articulated that this country has a chance to move ahead if a hundred honourable men can be found. And now I am thinking that to guide and enlighten these men (and women), there has to be related underpinnings. These underpinnings, spurs if you will, must consist of robust, principled, and fearless free thinkers. I repeat: free thinkers.
Without a doubt, there is a small body of critical thinkers present on the domestic scene. But I believe, and submit, that local critical thinkers do not rise to the level of genuine free thinkers; it is because they are constrained by circumstances of their own making, which first severely handicap them, and then box them into a tight corner.
Editor, I warn that from here it gets thorny and contentious. Look closely and carefully, and it becomes obvious that certain associations, identifications, projections, and contributions limit the expanse of horizons and visions that should characterize the true free thinker.
There is the tight hobbling fetters of ethnocentrism; the subscription to an enduring ethnic mentality and ethnic hegemony; the burdens of political allegiance ‒ declared or otherwise ‒ which reinforces ethnocentric outlooks; and the blind freighted worship of political icons. In terms of the latter, some have gone so far as to attack those who dare to see what they have either failed or refused to understand. In view of all of this, the critical thinkers have confined themselves to a piece (a piece) of a corner. They are satisfied: position recorded; job done; start over tomorrow.
Further, it is why I see the known ethnic agencies as distractions, dilutions, and desolations in the grand scheme of things. For certainty, the two main entities are significant and meaningful presences, but in a purely ethnic context; and which leads to the self-entrapment of limited priorities, limited utility, limited persuasiveness, and limited value. At best, they are about taking a stand for the voiceless and giving expression to their interests; at worst, even if unintentional, there is the perpetuation of hard sharp division. Whether in a private capacity or under the auspices of a group these are all formidable bars to the free thinking that I espouse. Moreover, they incarcerate the present and the future, and handcuff intelligent contributors from proceeding beyond the safe, the expected, and the tribal.
To be sure, there is agitation and representation through critiques, but it is mostly with the paramountcy of ethnic constituents in mind. Publicly non-aligned critical commentators do, on occasion, reveal this inclination. On the other hand, the free thinker will be quick to recognize that this society is all of 83,000 square miles and houses some 750,000 inhabitants, give or take. Free thinkers have to identify with that old-time Presbyterianism that heralded the social and political equity of the commonweal, not of a slice of territory. Thus, free thinkers can neither be trapped by the narrow nor allow themselves to be restrained by other superseding considerations. Stated differently, there are no boundaries, no limits. The free thinker is ready to bridge gaps, hurdle barriers, and scale summits.
There are no enemies, only fellow sufferers in a continuing vale of tears. I would go so far as to say that there is no competition; only insistent thrusts towards inclusion, crossing firing lines, rattling cages, and searing consciences. The free thinker knows how the house stands, and who exults in the top story political penthouse, and who is damned to the doldrums of the doghouse.
The free thinker challenges himself this way: what can I do, say, and write, that tables the plight, the expectations, and the disappointments of all. One more time, this is for all. Critical thinking after a time comes easy to many; there is need for more than just that, as helpful as that is. Once towering political monuments must be subject to an honest microscope and revealed in their naked ingloriousness. Of necessity, this has to include Jagan, Burnham, and that other one of more recent vintage. The only untouchables must be truth, accuracy, and fairness.
There is a place for free thinking that must embody rebellion and uprising of the spirit against the customary tribal walls. Sadly, free thinking, especially in Guyana’s circumstances, arrives with chains, a diminution of swarming spirits, and a palpable resignation to retreat behind the barricades that comfort.
I hear the floodgates opening and the winepresses of wrath rising. I set my face like flint. I believe that all free thinkers (such as they exist) in this country must refrain from the Quixotic, and recognize the local political Dulcinea(s), as they truly are, and then say so for the betterment of all.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
