Dear Editor,
It is interesting to observe how the government and its people, real and imaginary, limit themselves to the easily convenient; how they cherry-pick issues; and how they ignore hard matters. There is the settled smugness associated with a practised routine that dismisses the obvious, no matter how overwhelming.
Quite rightly, the governors point to certain achievements, some significant and commendable. It is appropriate to identify the past in housing and roads (satisfactory to good); the presence of light and water (waiting to hopeful); and the future of oil and carbon (exciting, if not promising). Flaws aside, and there are those, there has to be recognition for effort and achievement. I say this, even though some of these very things are works-in-progress, and others are still on the drawing board.
Quite wrongly, and as opposed to the earlier partial scorecard, there is mainly silence on trouble in a number of significant areas. There are frayed relations with trade unions and public servants impacting dollars and living standards; there is public outcry on the state of the security blanket with its infestation, corruption, division, and demoralization; and there is dismay over so-called commercial activity seen as criminal cover and outlets.
Just as wrongly, there is silence on pervasive corruption (pervasive, not ‘a little’) as manifested in built-in ten per cent takes for awarders; additional cost overruns for awardees; and lack of enforcement of mandatory clauses – if present – on specific performance and liquidating damages.
No, silence rules the day from government quarters. But there is another area that overwhelms everything else in hearing range: it is the reach of the domestic drug apparatus.
The drug situation in Guyana is no longer a perception. In numerous circles, it is now an article of faith that the drug presence represents a state within a state.
It is so widespread and entrenched, as to be undeniable. There are tentacles on the Regent Streets (commerce); Thomas Lands (security) State Street (big brother); and Jump Street (the little people). There is a presence in gold digging and tree cutting; fishing and shipping; and rum drinking and running(s). It is hard to find a place not infiltrated, including the church. Protestations are largely lacking from defenders, other than vapid fillers about demand, foreign assistance, and laws laid to rest in newborn innocence.
Taken together, huge swathes of the nation are affected negatively: unions in the tens of thousands, cumulatively over six figures, perhaps; and the security forces for several thousand more, but overshadowing all in the process.
It is the same negative tale on corruption, and the not too invisible hand of the narcotic state. People see others cheat, they feel cheated, they are cheated.
Still the imperial court buzzes with the sounds of human parrots, imported Merlins, educated misery-busters, and ghost writers in cyber sky. They dance as angels on a crowded pinhead as they ignore the searing light of reality; they ignore the unremitting roll call of concerns; and they ignore the increasing distance and dissonance between government and governed. All the while, they tell one and all “don’t worry, be happy.” Such is the cheerful nature of their selective propagations.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
