Dear Editor,
It has finally sunk in, despite my resistance. This country had to pay in some way for its superabundance of natural, physical riches. To compensate for all of our wealth, we got the dirty end of the stick in a band of bad politicians in general, and the worst of leaders in particular. I am struggling to figure out whether it is due to the immutable laws of physics alone, or some twisted combination of physics, chemistry, and biology. Then again, it could be the work of divine providence, or forces of nature, or the randomness of probability. Or even an extension of the great, feared resource curse. The bottom line is that Guyana always ends up with a cohort of political operators of the dodgiest variety, as if to make up for all the extravagant gifts of somewhere from somebody for some purpose.
I watch as ordinary Guyanese, thinkers and patriots, raise reasonable questions on issues of significance to them, and the floodgates of cover ups, deceptions, and counter narratives explode. There are willing, well-compensated cover up artistes to run and plant flags objecting to whatever truths are put out. For every one ray of light lit, there are 10 seminars from PPP emergency responders in place for just such developments. For every sentence that is revealing, another 10 blankets emerge to overwhelm and smother in the fullness of the State in fullest battle gear and declaring war on truth. The unlearned don’t know better, the loyalists are dogged, the simple folks yearning for honest answers are caught in no man’s land. Who to believe? Who to trust?
They settle for the political men and women who they have known all their lives. So what? Many elected, selected, resurrected and the professionals who propped them up are serial deceivers of the first order. How to build anything, much less a country, on such a decayed foundation? I look at leadership, then proceed to general governance strategy and accompanying tactics. One accurate news report on government failure, one contrary opinion on touchy issues (discrimination, corruption, criminalization of the state), and the Colin Powell standard of overpowering force is applied at the point of initiation. The PPP employs an army of assistants (courtesy label) to mow down truth, deal with dissenters, and paint pictures that have minimal basis in truth, fact, reality; oftentimes none at all.
But the objective always is not to let a single stray strand of thought that deviates from the government’s script be left unaddressed. The taxpayers’ dollars are utilized to attack in the helpful State media, and state sponsored and subsidized media. Those are the spin mills occupied by men tilting at windmills that have no relationship to truth, principle, and personal honour. This is what passes for accountability. This is how cheap we have become, that for a dollar men will sell themselves into slavishness to come up with their own versions of truth. There can only be one, be it about hospitals, or the crimes of leadership, or a murder on a main boulevard. In the transparency of their deceptions and concealments, truth is constantly sacrificed on the altar of money, position, and leadership favour.
As part of their versions of shake and bake, leaders have switched roles, as if they are into verbal cross-dressing in that they pretend at what is not there. One could take a single swipe at a strand of hair, and come up with four particles of leadership standards; little is of the trustworthy, integrity, decency, and dignity that is inseparable from high office. Another has ceased cursing and abusing (handed those over to the new man), and is a fountain of falsehoods in what is omitted, what never sees the light of day. He has perfected the art of speaking forever, and never saying anything of substance. Approach his vicinity and there is that suspicious, foul, odor of oil, and all that it greases.
I highlight two other tried and true tactics deployed by the PPP Government here. Instead of investigating uncorroborated information, the informant is investigated, and invited to his own farewell party. While all the preceding simmer uneasily, everyone pulls back, confident in the knowledge that in this society everything blows over in a couple of weeks, sometimes days. These are the vices now made virtuous locally. We call it leadership, governance, democracy. The lawman will also tell anyone who still listens to him that it is constitutional and, hence, perfectly legal. To that I say, right on bro.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall