Mash or Republic Day? Kaiteur News Jan 30, 2012 Editorial Related Two years ago we bemoaned the position of our political elite on the nature of our “Republic Day” commemorations. “What can we call the actions of our present leaders, save farce, of the highest order? In the face of a global meltdown that threatens to consume us all, they can do no better than “name-calling” in Parliament, as they debate “what is to be done”. The government continues to signal, by its massive financial and logistical support, that the lesson of Republic Day is revelry of the most bacchanalian order. We have “evolved” from “mashing” to “wining and blackballing” and now on to “daggering”. Even the children, coaxed by the Ministry of Education, officially inculcate these presumably Guyanese Republican art forms and values. Don’t even mention the lyrics of the Mash songs. Taking cognisance of such criticisms, the Minister of Culture announced that this year they would be introducing a “Republic of Guyana lecture.” This initiative was immediately pounced upon by an official of APNU, regurgitating claims of the government’s “ethnic premises” etc on Mashramani. While we also have concerns about how far the Ministry’s ‘change’ goes, it is a start and ought to be commended. We can build on this. It ought to be of interest to the present generation that while there was vehement disagreement between the two leaders regarded as the fathers of our nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Mr. LFS Burnham, as to the date chosen for Independence, there was complete unanimity on February 23rd as the beginning of our Republican status. As we approach Republic Day 2012, we should rather reflect on the reason for that confluence of views. February 23rd was chosen because it is accepted that on this day in 1763, Cuffy launched one of the earliest and greatest attacks on the institution of slavery; the epitome of oppression. Cuffy and his fellow slaves at Magdalenenburg were making the most emphatic statement possible against that state of affairs. They placed their lives on the line – and eventually lost those lives – to declare that oppression is not an acceptable condition for any human being. Our early modern leaders acknowledged that lesson from their own experiences and those of so many other colonials who had to struggle for their freedom, two hundred years after Cuffy. Today our Republic is besieged by forces other than slavery and imperialism, but no less powerful, that would keep us in thraldom. It is rather ironic that the two countries that staged the most potent attacks on slavery in the Western Hemisphere, Guyana and Haiti, are wallowing at the bottom of the development indices. Some of those early forces have morphed into more sophisticated and subtle neo-imperialistic forms represented by the omnibus term “globalisation” and these must be discerned and overcome if we are to reap the benefits of Republicanism. But we would also have to acknowledge that the forces that hold us back and down are not all from without. And in this we have apparently also forgotten the lessons of Cuffy’s rebellion, which our founding leaders signalled, in selecting this day as Republic Day. We not only have to remember why Cuffy and his fellow slaves rose up to fight oppression but also why they were defeated. Maybe it is now a cliché to observe that those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them – first as tragedy and then as farce. But, as with all clichés, there is more than a kernel of truth in its explication. One of the primary reasons for the failure of the 1763 Rebellion was the inability of the slaves to remain united against a resolute enemy and their refusal to maintain discipline to sustain their initial victory. They dissolved into warring factions and revelling bands. For Cuffy and his brave warriors, their ignominious end was indeed unfortunate. But when our modern leaders, claiming to be inspired by Cuffy, repeat the earlier mistakes; refuse to cooperate and risk plunging our country into internecine skirmishes, this is tragedy of the highest order. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples