Surprised by joy
Editorial
Going to check the preliminary voters lists at the Sacred Heart School in Main street after midday on Friday last week one encountered hundreds of schoolchildren running helter skelter, and playing during their lunch break. They were making the loud and happy kind of noise that only young children can. One saw more than one potential Ato Boldon or Merlene Ottey in that playground. But much more than that, one saw children of all races mingling in a friendly, intimate and loving way. In all their beautiful innocence, they looked healthy, bright and capable of anything. It made one dream of a Guyana in which instead of fighting each other we learn to live together peacefully and without rancour or division, a Guyana in which we admire our high achievers without regard to ethnicity, a Guyana in which we can get beyond the corrosive self-contempt inherited from the colonial era and learn to respect ourselves and each other. It was good on the same day to see an attendance at the funeral of the late Speaker of the National Assembly, Derek Jagan, that transcended political and ethnic boundaries and to see the Leader of the Opposition Desmond Hoyte at the same head table as President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Guyana Manufacturers' Association's Awards 2000 Presentation Dinner. There is far too much unnecessary bitterness in our political life. Certainly one can disagree strongly on policies and criticise one's opponents trenchantly but it need go no further than that. It is not a matter of life and death. There should be unspoken rules, limits, some basic respect for each other. One notices, for example, in the letters of Mr Raphael Trotman, a PNC parliamentarian, a generosity of spirit while criticising the government's policies. He does not demonise those he criticises or treat them as miscreants. Those vibrant children lead one to hope that Guyana can transcend its ethnic problems and achieve a level of peace and stability that will provide a basis for economic and cultural development. They lead one to hope that there is nothing inevitable about ethnic strife and that this may instead be a product of the way politics has developed in Guyana and the opportunism or cynicism of our politicians. They lead one to hope that with some adjustments in the quality of our political life, by a tempering of the rhetoric, the press releases and the articles in party papers a new less hostile politics can be achieved. We can disagree without fighting, as we do in courts of law and in parliament. We can criticise our opponents' policies and their record without impugning their integrity. There are so many possibilities, there can be so much hope if we allow ourselves to look at each other in a new light. We might be surprised by joy at the thought of the future our country could have if all our energies were channelled positively.
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