According to the Gregorian calendar we are in the year 2024. Every time the twelve-month cycle ends there are those who make resolutions, set intentions, and generally have new hope for what they will accomplish over the next twelve months. But often the old traumas that confine us still linger. Not actively seeking healing but simply believing that a new year will somehow transform one, is ill-conceived. Though the prison bars that some of us have built around ourselves may look shinier and we may feel that they somehow protect us, becoming our greatest selves is often still a promise for the future or we will never become if we do not seriously do the work to heal ourselves.
Our government is no different when it comes to rousing the nation with promises and what some may see as a pretense of sincerity at the start of each year. But for a nation of people so wounded and betrayed it is often difficult to believe all the words that are said when we see what is being done.
The president’s new year’s message was filled with gratitude for the guardians of our country and our health, public servants, the private sector, parents, elders, and young people. Some of the accomplishments of the government were also highlighted such as raising the tax threshold, salary increases, cash grants and such. It read like a dream. A promise of a fresh start, to right wrongs and strengthen bonds. A promise maybe that the betrayals the Guyanese people have seen from government to government may no longer hinder our progress. That the lives we lost in 2023 because of negligence and the cycle of trauma and oppression such as the Mahdia twenty, would not have been in vain and we will make sure that in every part of this country the protection of the people regardless of their ancestry, political affiliation or social class is a priority.
At this point in our country’s history though, perhaps it is only the foolish who would believe words and not judge by actions. The old trauma in a new year further confines some of those who praise human beings like themselves as their saviours. There are those trapped in a cycle of cognitive dissonance. There are those claiming to want to change but simply changing the colours of their prison bars and not actually trying to escape.
Being in a new year according to the Gregorian calendar has not removed the threats we are facing in Guyana. At the core is the threat to what will become of the Guyanese people. The survival of the average man is at risk. More and more over the last few years we have seen the ability to comfortably afford one’s basic needs for a large section of the population being stripped away. When a large section of our population lives in poverty and quickly, we are watching the face of our nation change with the influx of foreigners, many who are reaping the best of our country and others who have simply come here to seek betterment, who will we be in a few decades?
The ills of 2023 and before cannot be forgotten with attempts to seduce us with promises in 2024. Words nicely put together cannot save us. The reality is that we are living in a country where we are not only facing outside threats such as Venezuela, but the threats within might be even more dangerous as the stage is set for our people to eat themselves.
The meaning of the word dictatorship is ugly, and a country is in turmoil when it becomes one. Governments of the past and the current have been accused of standing in the way and people’s freedom of expression has been threatened. We have seen people charged with treason in the past and thrown in prison. The assassinations of loud voices of the past also cannot be forgotten. Now we sit and stand where cybercrime laws in our country leave anyone brave enough to voice their opinions vulnerable to being prosecuted as a way of silencing them.
It was just over a week ago when Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo threatened to go after social media influencers for so-called irresponsible comments against the government. Over the last few years, we have seen popular social media influencers speaking out about the corruption and discrimination that hinders our country from true progress. There are many Guyanese who trust these influencers and share their stories about the hardships they are facing. I guess this is seen as a threat to the government.
The vice president spoke especially about overseas-based Guyanese influencers when he said “I hope that the social media influencers who are operating under the guise that they are not in our jurisdiction and they feel safe abroad, safe from the reach of our law, that they are taking note too and I hope that anyone that they malign, sue them now and hire somebody abroad to serve them notice or the summon and make sure they video it like they did Rickford Burke and then proceed in Court.”
He also said, “They live abroad, they have nothing good to say about our country, they sow divisions, discord every single day by their comments. They use social media as a weapon against the government and private citizens and as a means of extorting people, and clearly this can’t be free speech, this can’t be protected speech, this is criminality.”
Jurisdiction or not, delusion or not, dishonesties or not, arrogance or not, when we have sat in a society and allowed a small group of people to stand like lords over us these are some of the results. When a large section of a population emboldens them, congratulates them for doing what they are supposed to do or will support them regardless of their ills, this is where it gets us.
The voices of many people are silent in this country because they fear prosecution if they were to speak. There are those who whisper in the ears of family or friends or in the ears of influencers bold enough to speak. A society is not healthy when people cannot speak freely, criticize a government, or hold them accountable.
So, while we can listen to beautiful speeches filled with gratitude, highlighting accomplishments and plans for the next twelve months, let us not fool ourselves into thinking that the traumas of the Guyanese people at home and abroad have been erased. The threats are ongoing. To threaten people who live overseas where their freedom of speech is protected because they are voices for people in Guyana who may be afraid to speak or because they have harsh criticisms of the government, is irresponsible.
Do I have confidence that we will see glimmers of hope to heal our collective trauma in 2024? I do not. With threats like seeking to muzzle even Guyanese who reside overseas, the traumas are sure to escalate.
The word dictatorship is an ugly one. It is not too late to take a good look at ourselves and do what is necessary to save us.
