Dear Editor,
Interesting how this country functions in spurts and stops. I used to find such occurrences intriguing, even encouraging, but now the lustre is lost. For what I observe is the endless cycle of sameness, which suits personal, social, and national temperaments well.
Today the spotlight is on the need for truth and reconciliation; the call and stirring of the moment. I am certain that those, who spare thought, time, and energy and effort to go public with such positions possess high core ideals. That I find commendable and helpful. But, way too quickly, that recedes into the murk of the conversations and exchanges that do not take place, never go further in the scheme of broad considerations. Oh yes, lots of citizens, all well-intentioned, support the need for such a conciliatory exploration. But where are they? When they have mostly disappeared when stomach and strength have to be committed. There is only the usually desultory which has become the inevitably of local reality: no traction. No substance. No enduring resonance in the hearts and minds of fellow feelers of the anxieties and the pains of past and present, and the fears for the future.
Thus, there are only the regular routines of the old merry-go-round. It is the tracing and retracing of the old circle: stand up (for a moment). Speak out aloud (usually alone). Move on (unaccompanied). There is only the charming, spirited, appealing moment of what is missing and what could be good, followed by circumstances that point to the absence of any of those many good Guyanese folks. Those who articulate so fervently and disgustedly their despair over what has blighted their existence, and then only for them invariably proceeding to other things.
Editor, it has been the compulsion of having to proceed to other things, since the drum pounded and the trumpet
sounded fails to assemble any enthusiastic cohort of dismayed and distressed members of the populace, who in great voice and passion profess their disappointments, their rages, and their condemnations of all that is wrong about the governance and ambience of this society. When invited, not so much challenged, to step up and secure a spot to evidence the supposedly heartfelt sentiments, there is the vacuum of silence, the torture chamber of being condemned to solitary. In view of such contexts, of such known and anticipated reactions, it is not surprising (to me, at least) that leaders and their venal, craven cabals play all the games that they do with the childish minds of the masses, which is what they have made of most of a sick populace.
I regret having to be so harsh. But it is the same story of another momentary fad that raises a tentative head and then just as quickly as a turtle snaps right back into characteristic disappearing action. Did I see right? Hear and read right? Did what I think happened in a flash actually occur? Yes, these instances are so haphazard and far apart, that I, sometimes, am prompted to question my own senses first, and then the seriousness of my fellow citizens. For the other fad of the hour, the latest bump and slump, is poured out here and there about the need for consensus.
Editor, if there is anything in this acrimonious, distrustful country that is called for, demanded, absolutely necessary, it has to be, hands down, consensus. There ought to be neither debate nor disagreement on that, and there isn’t. And yet, it goes nowhere, is fueled by no spirit, and falls by the wayside of disinterest. The very element that could make so much of a difference here is walked over, kicked into the sideline of the gutter, and then covered over in the artful camouflages that have become the norm.
As someone, who through insistent public calls point to consensus as the only way out of the snake pit, it is heartening to read that others in the milieu are for such a commonsense solution. But that is as far as I can go.
Because, the recognition of and expressions for consensus to address the contentiousness that cripple this society, too quickly fade from public attention and public consumption. Like truth and reconciliation, many are for consensus management of the affairs of this sorry, shabby state, now shamed by the grossest of everlasting political derelictions. Yet the proof of individual and collective commitments is nowhere to be found. The social referendums that evidence the wraths, worries, and woes of this nation are present neither in bulk nor in longevity.
Thus, there are these intermittent sparks only, and then only the usual. Thus, there are the endless social sword fencings, followed by the usual betrayals. And despite the arrival and fascinations of the new groups and new promises, the upcoming elections promise to be the same sad, dirty, self-defeating story. Straight down the middle number (if it could be defined, interpreted, and accepted).
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
