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January 11,2018

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Dear Editor,

My very educated and learned friend Zamal usually shares some great, well-constructed pieces with me. I am glad that I have such a friend who also sees the deeper side of things and thinks out of the box.

First I would like to express sincere thanks to the print media houses, Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, Guyana Times and the Guyana Chronicle for affording us the opportunity to share our views and thoughts on contemporary issues. The publishers have forsaken many millions of dollars in revenue annually by way of advertisements to give us sometimes two pages daily of newsprint for letters. Words are inadequate to express our gratitude.

James Baldwin said, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain”.

We believe that we must stand against oppression, seek justice and be tolerant. When we study history marked by prejudice, lies and hate, we see destruction and pain of unimaginable proportions. As it turns out we do live in these times. We are living and experiencing a fraught moment in which it is impossible to stay neutral. In twenty years, the young children of today will want to know, where we stood? What did we do to combat hate? How did we seek justice? Were we tolerant of others?

Examples of hate and intolerance are numerous. Just look around our world. The past hundred years have been catastrophic. Conflicts and devastation unmatched, suffering unspeakable, hate and intolerance in overdrive and sadly our leaders, our politicians propelling it.

I have experienced and witnessed intolerance in Guyana with my neighbour, in the streets of Georgetown, in the Mosque, in the Church and Temple, the Parliament of Guyana and various public places.

Once I had a meeting with the mother of a poor child I was sponsoring to attend a private secondary school. During the meeting, she took offence at what I said and became very furious, abusive and disrespectful. My blood reached my brain so fast, my heart said, “abort the sponsorship” immediately; but a voice rose deep inside of me and whispered, “You are not doing this sponsorship for her, you are doing it for God Almighty”.

Today, that child is a model student, she completed her BSc and is pursuing her MBA. I did not allow anger, hate and intolerance to get the better of me. This to my mind is how the men and women in authority should approach issues of individual and national interest. Such forms of hate, anger and intolerance that we see in society today will take root in our schools and ultimately will be transferred to the next generation. This is so frightening, good people must take a stand now. The politics of the world must attract a positive change in attitudes. The world is broken and we desperately need to get along, work with and respect one another. The era of fighting and intolerance should be over for the rivers of bloodshed are overflowing.

As we embark on the New Year, we simply cannot continue down the path of intolerance; we should not cling to our hates and old prejudiced practices. Let’s struggle to conquer our divides. Presidents and governments will come and go. But, the long process that truly changes our lives is still there and it is not always the thing that people are expecting or discussing. Let us all try to leave a legacy that future generations can emulate.

Yours faithfully,

Nazar Mohamed

Replies sorted oldest to newest

"My very educated and learned friend Zamal usually shares some great, well-constructed pieces with me. I am glad that I have such a friend who also sees the deeper side of things and thinks out of the box."


 

Me thinks Zamal is a poster on GNI.

Django
Last edited by Django

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

Billy Ram Balgobin
Last edited by Billy Ram Balgobin

We should try and leave a legacy that future generations can emulate.

January 11,2018,  Source

Dear Editor,

My very educated and learned friend Zamal usually shares some great, well-constructed pieces with me. I am glad that I have such a friend who also sees the deeper side of things and thinks out of the box.

First I would like to express sincere thanks to the print media houses, Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, Guyana Times and the Guyana Chronicle for affording us the opportunity to share our views and thoughts on contemporary issues. The publishers have forsaken many millions of dollars in revenue annually by way of advertisements to give us sometimes two pages daily of newsprint for letters. Words are inadequate to express our gratitude.


Yours faithfully,

Nazar Mohamed

Profound statement and objective.

Indeed, our collective positive approaches will always lead to improvement and enhance for the younger and future generations.

FM
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

How do you define the type of "Democracy" when one party wins by a slight margin and in Government continuously.

Django
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

How do you define the type of "Democracy" when one party wins by a slight margin and in Government continuously.

Would you prefer a party with 40% vote governing for decades through fraud or do you prefer one that wins fairly at the polls by a slight margin?

Billy Ram Balgobin
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

How do you define the type of "Democracy" when one party wins by a slight margin and in Government continuously.

Would you prefer a party with 40% vote governing for decades through fraud or do you prefer one that wins fairly at the polls by a slight margin?

I prefer rotational Government ,the current gov't is a coalition of multiple parties.

What needed for true Democracy are Electoral Reforms,the current system is tainted.

Django
Last edited by Django
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

How do you define the type of "Democracy" when one party wins by a slight margin and in Government continuously.

Would you prefer a party with 40% vote governing for decades through fraud or do you prefer one that wins fairly at the polls by a slight margin?

I prefer rotational Government ,the current gov't is a coalition of multiple parties.

What needed for true Democracy are Electoral Reforms,the current system is tainted.

Django,

Why don't you call a spade a spade and say honestly that the PNC is out to rig regardless of how imperfect the Carter Formula is. The present electoral system is not the problem. The problem is the Neo-Burnhamites are out to hijack democracy at all costs. 

Billy Ram Balgobin
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:
 

Django,

Why don't you call a spade a spade and say honestly that the PNC is out to rig regardless of how imperfect the Carter Formula is. The present electoral system is not the problem. The problem is the Neo-Burnhamites are out to hijack democracy at all costs. 

So you see no problem with party list system ? The Carter Formula is a temporary solution.Recommendations was made to reform the Electoral System,no action was taken by the PPP,Freedom House  loved the Burnham Constitution.

Good for them if they are in the pastures for awhile,they will get some sense where they erred.

Django
Last edited by Django

Changes to the major parts of the constitution require, as a minimum, the approval of two-thirds of the MPs.

The current constitution was made by Burnham when he "miraculously  through the rigged elections" obtained more than two-thirds of the elected MPs.

Currently, there are 33-PNCR plus associates and 32 PPPC members.

FM
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

I think that the letter writer was expressing a wish. However. This does not mean that he has not taken concrete actions to deal with the issues he raised so. Be not so free with your criticism.

Z

One of the things I am wondering about is on what the ministry of citizenship will be spending the extra amounts in budgetary allocations for this year. This was the issue/question edgehill tried to address when he was shut down by the speaker and eventually asked to leave the house. We can hope that they are as inefficient in spending their budgetary allocations as the government generally is if that extra is being used to set up the rigging of the next elections.

Z
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

How do you define the type of "Democracy" when one party wins by a slight margin and in Government continuously.

You want to think again and ask a different question? You should how do you(Django) accept dictatorship and ignore democracy?

FM
skeldon_man posted:
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Rigged elections in Guyana have divided our people more than anything else. If Zamal or his friend, Nazar wants unity then they both should struggle for democracy and cease the wishful thinking.

How do you define the type of "Democracy" when one party wins by a slight margin and in Government continuously.

You want to think again and ask a different question? You should how do you(Django) accept dictatorship and ignore democracy?

Take a read  here

Django

Good point Cain. However. In the time I have been here. I cannot think of any thread that has not deviated away from the topic. Heck, some of the titles of the threads have not been been congruentvwith the article posted. Some follow the discussions in the thread as it meanders along and make posts as deemed necessary.

Recently, DG tried to assert that some posts were off topic but another poster said that there was no rule that all posts must be on topic. For me, I go with the flow and post as deemed necessary as the thread meanders.

Z
Zed posted:

Good point Cain. However. In the time I have been here. I cannot think of any thread that has not deviated away from the topic. Heck, some of the titles of the threads have not been been congruentvwith the article posted. Some follow the discussions in the thread as it meanders along and make posts as deemed necessary.

Recently, DG tried to assert that some posts were off topic but another poster said that there was no rule that all posts must be on topic. For me, I go with the flow and post as deemed necessary as the thread meanders.

That's not what I said. DG insists that the starter of a thread must use the newspaper headline as the headline for the thread here. There is no such rule. 

Mars
Last edited by Mars

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