A new Decade offers new vistas, new promise for our Dear Land of Guyana.
2020 will see national elections and, hopefully, new revenues that can be used for the benefit of all our peoples. 2020 will also see new challenges for the protection of the environment, tackling climate change, and sustainable development.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 requires all countries to strive for societies grounded in peace, equitable development, justice, strong institutions that are accountable to the people, and universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. This is a vision that should animate all Guyanese.
2020 will see political parties offer varying blueprints, and perhaps visions, for taking the country forward. Hopefully, these will be uplifting. Often, they are flat and self-serving. We shall see.
Guyana has special challenges to realize its national vision of one nation, one people, one destiny. Our people comprise those who lived here for millennia and those who came from different parts of the world. The colonial experience did not foster unity. The cold-war experience pitted communities against one another. Post-independence governance has seen an admixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our people migrated, and those who remained did the best they could to survive.
We must accept that we have to work assiduously for nation-building. We should not take this for granted. Might it be useful for whichever government comes to power to establish a Ministry for Nation-Building and Social Cohesion?
Nation-building and social cohesion can only come from the people, backed up by efficient and just governance. As a child of Guyana, nourished by its bounty, who has served the United Nations in peace and war, who has seen the aspirations of our young people as Chancellor of the University of Guyana, who passionately loves his country, I would invite my compatriots, each one of us, to consider the following Pledge for Guyana.
I pledge my love and loyalty for Guyana, integral and whole.
I pledge respect for every Guyanese, respect for the dignity, equality and rights of each of my compatriots.
I pledge to strive to understand the history, culture and traditions of all our peoples so that we can all live harmoniously.
I pledge to show special understanding of the culture of our indigenous peoples and to foster their welfare and development.
I pledge respect for our women-folk, our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, companions.
I pledge to strive for the enhancement and welfare of all our children, so that they may grow up to lead full and meaningful lives – in health, education, habitation, work, and social harmony.
I pledge to care for our environment, to contribute to tackling climate change, to protecting our species, flora and fauna.
I pledge to protect our people from the rising oceans.
I pledge to do my part for democratic governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights of all Guyanese.
I call upon all Guyanese, especially our political leaders, to consider these pledges also.
I make this pledge for the sake of a new Guyana, in a new decade, with a new spirit of national rejuvenation.
I shall judge our leaders by how they measure up to these standards.
