Dear Editor,
I read of a political leader showered with abuse and worse during a recent walk around the market square. I could summon neither satisfaction nor perverse pleasure at what unfolded. All I could think of was: what is sown is reaped.
For over a decade a culture of abuse and disrespect permeated this land; the standards exhibited at the highest level made the skin crawl and the stomach churn. It was ugly and baleful and produced mental flinching. None of what became the norm could be deemed acceptable by the self-respecting, the thoughtful, and the decent. Now the shoe is on the other foot and the circle complete.
Locking out the media has led to this locking of minds with all the irreversibility of a guided missile; singling out of special targets for damnable treatment has contributed to the reciprocation of the same vile and vicious ways in the rawest most visceral manner, this time from street level. This is liveinguyana (remember that blog?) without the shroud of cyberspace, but ripped raw and similarly raucous. So, too, the ferocious uncompromising language of diatribes did find a fertile foundation, and today returns with the vengeance of unnerving decapitating boomerang.
Imploring fell on hard un-listening ears; deploring landed on rocky unyielding soil. Be about statesmanship; be less disgusting and less disgraceful. It was all to no avail. Now there is the spectacle of furies unleashed; of the scorned and dismissed venting the pent-up wrath of all those barren gritty years. Thus the favour is returned, that which was so liberally dispensed. It is a reversal and reflection of what went before when power was godlessness, and that same godlessness knew no bounds.
There are two more things left to say about the scorching sulfuric symphony from the trenches of the streets: First, it is well-deserved; second, it should reiterate to all Guyanese (inclusive of party leadership echelons) as to the sharp bitter animosity triggered by the mere presence of who and what failed, and of what reminds. Those sometimes vulgar, all the time vociferous vendors spoke for more than one silent multitude in this society. Guyanese saw and heard. Perhaps that party will learn, too when it weighs its future and its own destiny.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
