Dear Editor,
My name is Shazaam Ally, or ‘Shaz’ for short. I am East Indian, Guyanese by birth and I love my country to bits. My goal as a member of The Citizenship Initiative is to create meaningful change within our country to raise the quality of life for all Guyanese.
I am not political by nature, in truth I’m a shy guy who is often reserved in gatherings. Professionally, I design and manage websites, build apps for smart phones and also run my family’s business. I attended City College and St. Joseph High School during my secondary years. You might have heard about GuyanaPalace (gp.gy) which was Guyana’s largest and most popular social website back in the early 2000s (before Facebook took the world by storm). My siblings and I created that website with the intention of making it into the ‘go-to’ online stop for Guyanese to chat, browse, share and discuss anything they wanted to.
I am happily married to my lovely wife Sheena and we have three beautiful children (one girl, two boys). As of September 2019, I have been a political activist for just over four years. Now why would a quiet IT professional step out of his comfort zone to become involved in political discourse you ask? The answer is straightforward: I realized that I have to roll up my sleeves and get involved actively to really start to make a change.
You see, initially I voted for the PPP out of traditional loyalty. This was in 2006 and again in 2011 under a different presidential candidate. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed by their policies and direction that their style of governance took our country in. I saw the
economic damage caused by the PPP’s penchant for favouring their party sycophants, and it sickened me to the core despite me being an Indian living under a predominantly Indian government’s tenure. As I retraced my country’s political history and learned about the various periods post-independence where Guyanese were divided and turned against each other by ethnically driven politics, my heart was sickened. How could this be the fate of my beautiful Guyana whose motto resoundingly states ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’?
In 2015, with a PPP-minority government in parliament sitting on a track record of hair raising nepotism, cronyism and undemocratic decisions, I decided to listen to the message of the APNU-led coalition. Because of the involvement of youth in their campaigning, their message resonated with me and I made my decision to use my vote to remove the PPP from power. I felt Guyana needed a unity government that would represent all of the people without fear or favour. After four years of the APNU in power, I am sorry to say that in 2015, we exchanged one diseased side of the coin for the other.
So here I am in 2019, angry at the politicians who have fractured our country along ethnic and economic lines for 53+ years; motivated by the strength of other like-minded persons who I have met that want to see the country move away from this vicious cycle; a little fearful because I do not know if my fellow countrymen and women will find the courage to use their votes to bring about a clean slate; and determined to use all of my skills, resources and energy towards shaping a better nation for my children to grow up in.
Now you know how my story began. I don’t know how it will end, but I hope you can help me write the next chapters where together, we join our hearts, minds and hands to heal and launch our nation towards prosperity, equality and peace. My name is Shaz Ally, and I am a proud member of The Citizenship Initiative. Join me and others like me as we begin Mobilizing Political Transformation Through Civic Empowerment.
Yours faithfully,
Shazaam Ally
The Citizenship Initiative
