Dear Editor,
Almost two weeks after the ugly, sad horror of Agricola, everyone has had a say: partisans, the outraged, the political parties, the media, the church, and many others. But for all the saying is anything being heard? For all the knowing, is there more discernment? And does discernment (if it exists) usher in wisdom and the vision to do something to lift all up and out of the political and racial morass? There is only one answer to all of these questions and the embedded issues. It is sobering and chilling –it is “No!”
Take the leaders. They maneuver skillfully towards political tribalism and subtle racial advantage. There are no victims, only collateral damage available for perverse purposes. There is no Guyana first, only a contemptible propulsion of the interests of self and prime beneficiaries. This is so for incumbents and those in waiting; it is about party and power first and foremost. And always. They learn nothing; they know everything. Everything that is good for them and their circle.
Take the community. Its disenchantment is allowed to be hijacked and degenerate into the barbarity of mob mayhem. The very justice sought, the tendril of hope reached for collapse under the brunt of misdirected fury. Case and cause are injured, perhaps irremediably. This is not the way. The flotsam of physical explosion is moved; so are police and perpetrators and commuters. But memory doesn’t; it looks backward and remembers the worst. Alongside are those who condone no forgetting. It serves their purposes; it perpetuates their ways and their ambitions…
Take the victims. Battered and terrorized, their wounds will linger and fester. And those same wounds will seep into families and neighborhoods; churches and schools; on the open street and within the closed soul near and afar. Yes, for our knowing, there is only this much that is known: All are involved, all are consumed.
When the fires are dimmed, the polemics cooler, and the conditions on the ground-be they manufactured or unaided-return to the sanity of civility, these questions must be asked: What has been proved? What gained? Who won? Whatever the answers to these questions, this much is undeniable: the oppression of injustice continues; the savagery of victimization pierces and warps; and the tragedies of yesterday (be they political or accidental) ruin reconciliation and yoke those ready to attack with those who wish the safety of separation and distance. This society remains as it was before that violent Thursday evening, and the same from a half century ago. Nothing has changed. Nothing new ready to be tried. And still trust is placed in those who have failed, failed to try, and will continue to fail all but themselves and their craven selfish instincts. In view of all that has occurred, I wonder if it is inaccurate and unkind to say that in terms of political evolution, Guyana is still locked at the level of early primates, and perhaps unfit and unready for self rule….
Yours faithfully,
GHKlall