On the morning news on Voice of Guyana (October 21) I listened to President Irfaan Ali’s call for reconciliation and, as I understood it, for a resolution to engage and solve the country’s longstanding conflicts. This call was made in the name of the late President Janet Jagan, a foreign born citizen of Guyana who worked at the levels of people, party and state for change from her own perspectives.
Although it can be argued that Mrs Jagan was not a unifying personality, her investment in public affairs of a certain tendency is for me sufficient to allow me to argue that a considered response to the President’s dramatic call from responsible agencies will be helpful.
Although Mrs Jagan contributed much in her time to the struggle for women’s rights and social justice she was by no means a pioneer in the field, the path having been trodden by Guyanese women long before her time.
It is my impression that the President’s choice of this occasion to make such an important call is purposeful. I hope that his Presidential staff has made sure that all political parties and civic organisations and trade unions have copies of his appeal, as the embassies certainly have by now.
As an individual citizen speaking only for myself, I am of the opinion that everything should be done to reduce tensions in the society, without the need for any group to surrender its just claims for justice or to accept the will of the central government as not being open to challenge.
I seize this chance to assure readers in general and those who feel victorious in particular that I am not seeing this opening as a time to call for power sharing. I shall not be making that call again as it has a way of suggesting to those on the side of victory that somebody wants to cheat them of the fruits of victory to please those who in their opinion deserve the status they are left with.
Eusi Kwayana
