Dear Editor,
The saying, “Words are wind,” has its origin in R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” and the subsequent adaptation, “Game of Thrones.” Writing came after speaking which is second to thinking. Is the written word more powerful than the spoken word? The debate continues with, “It depends…” But one thing stands the test of time. An arrow cannot come back once it’s left. Likewise, a spoken word cannot be taken back. Once spoken, it’s gone with the wind! Its significance may induce an accolade or invoke an apology, or, be ignored without any attention.
Former Junior Minister for Social Protection and responsible for Labor, Keith Scott, during the PNC reign in 2016 had classified both FITUG and GTUC as “virtually impotent.” This was on December 20’ 2016, during the presentation on the estimates for the 2017 budget in the National Assembly. Afterwards, Minister Scott said, “I made the mistake, that statement is regrettable, I’m solely responsible for the statement being made. I take full responsibility for saying so, and it takes nothing out of me to say to FITUG, GTUC, media and to the citizens of Guyana, that I’m sorry.” Again, in September’ 2018, said Minister Scott had referred to the teachers of Guyana as “uncaring” and “selfish,” when they took industrial action while seeking to improve their living conditions by an increase in their salaries. A second apology was offered as per a statement issued from the Ministry of Presidency, “I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to the teachers of Guyana. I regret making such an inflammatory and hurtful statement. I have always and will always hold the teachers of our nation in the highest regard.”
Did his words reflect the true colors of the PNC Government and their real feelings towards the workers’ plight and sorrows of the day? “Mouth open, story jump out,” is a Guyanese proverb which unveils the truth about what was really meant when the PNC proclaimed the ‘small man being the real man’ and who really were meant for living the ‘good life.’
A spoken word is like a planted seed, it will breed, reproduce and multiply itself. The PNC made numerous promises in 2015 in order to cajole the people into voting for them. Those words provide futile and the promises remained empty. They claimed they inherited an empty coffer, yet, the first thing the PNC did was to give their boys and girls hefty salary increases while ignoring the rest of the nation! A hidden US$18 million signing bonus proved how honest the PNC was and a lopsided oil contract confirmed how much integrity meant to them. Former PNC Foreign Affairs Minister, Karen Cummings, was accused of intimidating the observers from the international missions during the 2020 General and Regional Elections. She was reported as saying that she was instructed to “withdraw their accreditations.” Her remarks irked and upset the observers. Former Prime Minister of Barbados and Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission in Guyana rebuked minister Cummings saying, “I speak on behalf of the Commonwealth, the largest organization of people in the world, and I am not going to have, not me, the Commonwealth disrespected by a threat to take away the accreditation.” Offering his badge to her, he further exclaimed, “I am going to speak to the Commonwealth Secretary-General shortly…and I have a duty to her to report accurately and I cannot now avoid speaking accurately”.
The people of Guyana reacted. The repercussion was inevitable. The PPP/C was duly elected as the legitimate and legal winner of the 2020 election to govern Guyana, despite the rigorous and futile engineering by the PNC to attempt fraud by rigging the election.
An American writer, Yehuda Berg wrote, “Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”
26th May’ 1966, at the presentation of instruments in Parliament, the then Prime Minister LFS Burnham said, “After some 150 years of British Rule and in some cases, misrule, we are now independent, but we harbor no bitterness. Because bitterness we feel is for children and the intellectually underdeveloped.” Burnham added, “…. we shake hands with them as friends, and colleagues.” The devious dictator must be diabolically livid somewhere! Burnham’s dedicated disciples and proud proteges devoted to his sinister satanism have rebelled on him and eschewed from his ideological concept of ‘harboring no bitterness’ and his respectful principle of ‘shaking hands.’ Yes, the statesman was an orator and dramatist! But the PNC … are those guys and gals children and intellectually underdeveloped, deploying truancy and displaying emotional escalations?
It is said, “Talk is cheap.” There are more talkers than doers and few walk the talk. Before the 2015 Election, the PNC had promised, “to energize sugar and return it to former glory years.” In their election campaign, they denied that they will close the sugar estates saying, “Sugar was too big to fail and that sugar must remain the foundation of the economy.” When the PNC took office in May 2015 winning by a mere 4506 votes, they immediately reneged, closing 4 estates with more than 7,000 workers (most being PNC non-supporters), losing their jobs, affecting over 40,000 men, women and children as a result. The PNC failed to keep their word and they took away bread from the children! It’s the PPP/C that’s keeping their word
Most of the time, we cause troubles with our own tongue and words. The tongue is sharper than the sword. A word can change the meaning, mood and the motivation. Guyanese should think twice before we speak. Our words, deeds and actions will plant the seed to influence either success or failure in the mind of another.
Yours respectfully,
Jai Lall.