Dear Editor,
I say in advance that this writing may be dated by today. Even the norms of the day are tortured. Whatever moves does so unenergetically, devoid of either motivation or drive. This is what I see and absorb: a society in the throes of the many hallucinations that are also part of its severely distressed realities.
I watch and I hear sets of citizens tearing themselves apart psychologically, emotionally, even physically. They are suspended in a tormented wait for results. The current component, this most crucial one, of our elections programme, which is focused on, consumed by, and overwhelmed by readying for results and reactions. The latter two are indivisible. It is a roiling individual and collective state reflective of the agonies that flow from the regular anxieties of winning and losing, and of the seething differences that bedevil and cripple this country.
Crippled it is right now, as it limps along, and as it hops gingerly and nervously from one foot to the other. The peoples of this society – my brethren all – are so fixated on elections results that they are mentally paralyzed; almost without exception frozen in bladder and gut and sight. That primacy of interest may serve them well for elections purposes, but it is most hostile to what is needed in Guyana today for going forward.
Sure we need results, we need them accurately and timely. And we must have them earlier than later, as in today (Wednesday) and not Friday. That would be too late, with the creeping tenseness that has no more spaces to fill, no other places to inhabit. I look on as a society bends itself double and hogties itself into uselessness. What I am concerned about now is how does it unwind and rebound, after such draining compulsions and wastages. To be sure, they are tinged with the usual poisons. I cringe.
I cringe because I behold a people that will neither be inclined towards nor interested in standing down in the post result environment. While everybody concentrates on the tardiness of results (not improperly in the least), I have already gone past that known bump in the road. I am in that unknown and daunting place: the aftermath. When so many have come out and lined up and done their duty, I am unable either to comprehend or appreciate who could appeal to them to stand down, what could be said to them that will lead to such a most vital necessity at this time.
The sober and temperate have called for understanding and the restraint of calm. I agree, but sense stuffed ears that can no longer hear, even if the owners of those ears command them to do so. That is how far down a certain road we have traveled. This is what lives and thrives and excites and troubles both sides. I see shells and shadows of people going about the day while waiting for that whisper leading to a roar or a groan.
What are we going to do with those groaning? As is now clear, it is the neck and neck of the first half and the second in this country barreling down the straightway to be first to the prize for power. Nobody wants second place, since it is not worth a single minute of cellphone credit. I wonder who is going to tell those coming up short by a hair that they must accept and respect those who nosed them out. Those who are rising and trumpeting in this or that forum that things should be this way (and that it is this way) do not have what it takes to lean a bicycle against a wall, will be unable to hold anything or anyone close.
It is why I say that, even as we rightly press for early and credible results, let us gird for what lies behind the numbers, what resides in the hearts of the people, what could make or break us, as we look past Elections 2020. I am already past this time. I don’t know that the peoples of this country are so ready, or so-equipped, to take themselves there. As all of this is offered, I remind one and all: we have a country to build, a business to manage, and ourselves to govern.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
