Undoing the Motto

There is a Guyanese proverb, “Wha rain can’t full, dew can’t full.” It means, if it didn’t work, nothing else will make it happen. This proverb seems to be a reality in the Politics of Guyana. We have tried hard to unite the nation through various means but invariably we have failed because of the divisive political adherents. On the part of the political arena, we have tried to unite this nation or not? We have to acknowledge humbly that humans are selfish beings and by all means we will try to put forward an ideology that suit our own selfish interests. Last few weeks have proved that politicians can never unite this nation who are supposed to uphold the slogan, “one people.”

In the wake of political unrest in the nation, should the Church or religious body speak up? Should we prove aforementioned proverb untrue?

True religion will certainly care for the holistic growth of its believers, namely, body and spirit or temporal and spiritual. If the religion does not care for these two realities of the devotees, then the religions will fail in its teachings of justice and peace for every religion must promote justice and peace, which are two important attributes of God.

The Catholic Social Teaching emphasises two important aspects, namely, life and dignity of human person and solidarity as one human family. Every Christian must uphold these aspects because we believe that God created humans in his image and likeness. If we try to divide the people based on political ideologies or colour of skin, we certainly go against the teaching of Christianity by distorting the image and likeness of God. Are we subtly led by our leaders to distort the image and likeness of God?

There is a fearful tendency among Church people that politics is dirty game and this dirty game must be played in the Church. This makes one to stay away from any political issues in the nation. This tendency is the hot cake for the political leaders. Hence, on the one hand people remain cold towards political differences on the other hand politicians truly enjoy because it matches their way of life. In other words, politics is the opium of the mass. As long as this opium is ingested, politicians will keep enjoying their freedom.

In this nation, politicians have got freedom and the people have not yet got the freedom. They still live under the colonisation of the elect few. This is the new way of colonisation. Just think for a moment, how many of the politicians truly care for the poor? How many political leaders have true concern for the poor who still live in logies and in the swamps? How many of our politicians have ever donated their fat salary to build a decent shelter for the poor? Catholic Social Teaching talks about care for the poor and vulnerable. We don’t even know why our political leaders are in friction with each other. The day any leader fights for the care of the poor, our country has truly seen a great leader.

Our political situation must be everyone’s concern. We need begin with “Politics Matter”, hence, every religion, organisation, institution must speak up objectively by applying those teachings of Christ, life and dignity of human person and care for the poor and vulnerable. No politician should tell us you are Indo-Guyanese or Afro-Guyanese. The prefix must be erased and only suffix should matter to us because we are truly Guyanese and we are Citizens of Guyana and not Citizens Indo or Afro- Guyanese. If we can organise our families, business and institutions so well, why not organise our own nation. After all, we make the nation not one or two political leaders. Let us go and get it.

Concerned Citizen of Guyana