Dear Editor,
There is sharp burning anger of a destructive kind raging in this society. ‘Ruckus in parliament’ is how SN described the developments in a breaking online report; it is a mild understatement, dispassionately so. There is so much underlying what occurred, that that “ruckus” in time might assume the unthinkable. As matters continue to deteriorate, there is cringing as to where I see matters are presently, and where they are heading.
Parliamentary wrath and disconnect, confrontation and the ensuing ugliness that follows deterioration offer an undeniable microcosm of the real Guyana out of sight and in action. It is of the palpable social descent simmering in homes, in hearts, and in the hard streets. Parliament is indicative of a hostile edgy Guyana, where passions heave furiously beneath a dappled front, and can erupt to the surface and for all to observe this country as it really is at the core: bitter, hateful, incompatible. To be sure, some of the aggression and disregard is premeditated; waters are more than being tested. There is the bar continually raised and gloves discarded as storm clouds gather and thicken. They are manmade. I interpret all of this as the stage being set.
Too much has been lost and surrendered since 2015. Too much has been disrupted and suffocated with too many powerful forces reduced to compromise, or to a paltry immaterial existence. Too many leading political champions are ready to gamble to recover and return and restore what has crippled beyond recognition. As if those are not enough troubling realities, there is the golden promise of oil. That is shaping up to be a curse before it is pronounced, even before a single drop is extracted from below the sea. Whether clean or dirty, official or underground, there is too much known and mesmerizing money promised in this little land for some to ignore or be passive bystanders. Hence there are the sprawling ruckuses in parliament. Some just have to be in the middle of the money mountain, or better still on top of it. Forget about country and community and constituency, even comrades. There is only the life and death jousting, with parliamentary behaviour furnishing public evidence of the lengths to which Machiavellian men will go to realize what obsesses. Greed is good.
Thus, there is this alarming convergence of the angry (supporters), the thwarted (partners), and the deluded (leaders) that hurtle this place and its peoples towards fearsome temperatures, and greater splintering. Parliament keeps providing instances of how the disputatious transform and decline into choreographed malevolence, through projected incitation and intentions. Nothing is accidental, or the incidental of the moment; there is much more to calculated objectives. Time will confirm.
Meanwhile, the raw naked street of recent (and traditional political Guyana), as it really is, seeped into parliament: the heavy body language; the broadsides of the language of reckless spirit and postures. This is what prevails on the outside; it is fuelled from the inside and up there. The thin threads that stretch to hold together struggle. If incivility in conduct and searing contempt for discipline now serve as hallmarks in the legislative body, then there can only be lesser and worse in the daily commerce of citizens, in truth companies of mainly prejudiced constituencies on the move.
Editor, I believe that calculated building blocks are being erected one at a time with confrontation and severe challenge in mind. Unlike other times, material and resources are available. They are currently idle; they are abundant and at disposal. I do not like what is observed, or where connecting dots lead. I sense a spiralling recklessness and great willingness to take any dangerous position; this has been confirmed time and again by postures in the national theatre that is parliament, and on the outside also. There is substance to sources behind the scenes; it was called upon before, relied upon before, and used before in the still ongoing degradation of the social environment. Parliament is but an indicator of such mindset, muscle, and studied madness.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
