I am thinking that Guyanese live in an environment where men and women stay up late at night to come up with what sticks it to adversaries. I think that adversary is too mild a word, as it does not quite capture the essences of the rages that prompt new plots, various schemes. From my perspective, the norm is to cut off at the knees, tumble into a heap, and then rub the victim’s face into whatever is on the ground. It could be dirt, the gutter, or a latrine. Some may opine that this is taking matters too far. The invitation is for any Guyanese to share publicly the quality of the communication, the smoothness of the ambience, that is present, and which contradicts assertions made. Notwithstanding pretenses of politeness, or efforts at independence, the bile, acid, and venom are transparent.
What is it that galvanise into action, to rush for the throat of a fellow citizen, a political obstacle, a hated presence (crush undesirables)? We have proceeded from proving points to the pointless (VIP lounge exclusion). I thought that there were more important issues that take priority, to deal with, in this country (patrimony, territory). When the VIP development is conjured, then made official, energies are obviously squandered. We will never get anything resembling ‘One Guyana’ with such mindsets. We will get two Guyana(s): who is in, who is out. Who must be seen and heard and read versus those who must not be. The gap between the haves and have-nots simply multiplies.
I am thinking of more than money and inclusion with national resources. It is those who must have all the say, those who must have none. Grownups and those growing up. Be there but be invisible and inaudible. The haves will harbor hopes and dreams; rich ones fulfilled. The have-nots will have nothing to reassure them that they belong. Don’t dare to be nearby. The haves cherish their joys, the have-nots seethe over their lot. It is not only about money and a share in the patrimony; it is about how they conclude that they feature in the minds of their nemeses. Are they people or are they beasts? Politics is cheap and tawdry but many things here are in a zone of their own. We are there, aren’t we? I say that we are.
Instead of targeting those held as blood enemies, take aim at those who have all the power in their hands to make a difference for every Guyanese, but don’t. Platitudes from one, deviousness from another. Remove the intellectual cataracts from our eyes and see those who delight because they benefit when we make enemies of each other, for what is lived. During a hard era, the freedom to speak came under severe restrictions. One did so at great risk. Today, when there are all these tools and avenues made possible by technology, the irony is that skillful and crude efforts are made by those with money, those with blind loyalties, to shut down any who disagree with their dominant narratives.
What is different today from what went on before, when there is this great fear, this pervasive reluctance, to speak one’s mind in public? The deep-seated anxiety in the time of LFS Burnham was that physical injury could add to the psychological ones inflicted. The concerns nowadays are that jobs could be lost, access removed, family members victimised, and reputations poisoned, for daring to hold a contrarian position. Worse, to give some expression to it. To elaborate, holding a contrarian position may prompt not to articulate frankly when there is opportunity, which alone could be enough to get one’s name penciled in the traitor column.
I urge fellow citizens to examine who is most feared in this society. Criminals provoke the standard apprehensions, which are healthy and wise. But I tender that when national political leaders can do so much more damage across the board (cousins, known associates, partners), the fears about them outrank the alarms over street-level criminals, other than the violent ones. The criminals have their knives and guns to enforce their moments of mayhem. Muh higher up, political destroyers have amassed so much power that their sinister intents are palpable, their ravages unlimited.
Directly or through surrogates. Lawsuits increase, furnish evidence. They are one result of the internal wars that Guyanese have declared on each other. Frankly, the whole of Guyana can be brawling, but neither government nor leaders can be the chief trendsetters in this regard. The savage irony of all this is how a remarkable human specimen named Nicolas Maduro has taken the weapons that Guyanese use to pummel one another and redeploy them to strike at this country beginning with the head of state. Maduro has copied the foul language, unsparing tone, and provocative insults that Guyanese leaders and their proxies hurl at citizens deemed deviationists.
Guyana is too small to make so enemies of its own on the inside. Guyanese cannot be this foolish, this self-destructive, that their eyes move away from the monstrous foreign cabals and their minds work overtime, so their hands are armed to level those who must be set straight, silenced, savaged, or shutout.