OPINION: A different Guyana urgently needed

Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 August 2024, 20:36 by Writer

by GHK Lall

I keep learning new things about this country. The new is how devoted it is to what is nasty, ugly, surly, and now stands as the only accepted way for Guyanese to interact with one another. I think it is the Ali-Jagdeo school of communication standard that has taken hold and will not let go. This is what now rules with a mighty sweeping arm. And people say that I don’t have much use for these two remarkable Guyanese specimens of national and global leadership honor. They used to sell the same commercials for two other special fellas about 100 years ago: one was from Russia, the other from Germany. Now I urge fellow citizens to consider the following extracts from the pathways of Guyana and decide for self the strength of what is offered as proof. If it passes the proof test in the first place.

Write a letter, a column, a thought, and the regulars are waiting in ambush. They want blood in their palms, flesh in their jaws. Nothing but those would sate the lusts. Frankly, I am afraid, not for me, but for the fate of this country. Say an honest word about the PPP and its unpardonable; mention Burnham in a good light and it’s the gallows. Beat up one and brutalize the other, and the cheers ring like church bells on Christmas morning. In other words, barbarity rules. Who are the biggest, loudest, sharpest, most vicious examples, if not leaders, and their standing armies? The norm is that when leaders are not personifying that cannibalistic culture, they openly egg their cult followers on. Go get them (vermin), get them on social media, if mainstream media or state media limits too much. I shudder to think of the presence of AI in Guyana. This is notwithstanding the reassurances of Hon. AG Nandlall and his promise about comprehensive laws in the hopper. Take that one about ‘honorable’ as an example. I have used that word so much in the context of the AG and others of his kind that my hypocrisy and diplomacy meters are both broken beyond repair. I think that is called tact, so I stick with it, has its uses. The bigger point is that if we are this rough and abrasive with social media, dark media, and anonymous media, then what would AI with all its rich possibilities do to Guyana? More pointedly, what it helps criminal-minded Guyanese inflict on other Guyanese. Mayhem. I move along.

Unless a comment or a response is brutality itself, then don’t bother is how I interpret the present and future states. The new standard for contributions in public media space is walk armed. Sticks and stones are out, a hatchet is a start, sledgehammer even better; and if there is a pickaxe handy, that is a state of preparedness, with a battleaxe most comforting. To put it more nicely, gentility is out, hostility and obscenity are in, and the more sting in either of them, the better. It is a new addition to Guyana’s fabled hospitality: a Christmas card in one hand, a cutlass in the other. Tact is for fools; hack away and stack the bodies now form part of a regular Guyana day. The hope that citizens who still think, still care, can see that this is where Guyana is, and loving it. For some reason pictures of the lovely Ali and Bharrat the benign flash past. Consider this one that brighter Guyanese like to sashay with: meeting of the minds. It seems that most Guyanese either didn’t go as far in school as I did, or they failed to get as much as me from the school of life, and for one simple reason. For minds to meet, there must be two in operation. Yes, I said two and both in the present. For talk about something (anything) in this country and the fire alarms go off; it is back to the future with Burnham. Or Jagan. Somehow those old favorites, the CIA and the USA are now protected species.

Whatever the disagreement, the argument, there must be an openness to reasoning, to be moved by it. Since everybody (almost) is immovably stuck to where they are, then it is better to save breath and build up on vitamins or the bankbook. In fairness, a few in the independent media try. Too hard sometimes, as if to prove how conservative (unbiased) they are. Where others may see cowardice, I absorb caution. Oh, maybe even an attempt at class. They learn well out there. I can deal with a citizen who doesn’t spell well, but want no truck with those on whom leaders have cast a spell. And a line of credit plus some other incentives. People must earn their keep, so it is anything goes to prove loyalty. So, where does this leave Guyana? For starters, a third-rate civilization for the next hundred years. For seconds, think of some rich kid or stunning beauty who is dumber than a wheelbarrow, and that’s Guyana: all jewelry and costumes (monuments) and nothing but a mindless mausoleum. If Guyanese cannot speak freely and politely to one another, then it is best to leave alone. I stay away, if only to maintain what is left of serenity, honesty, dignity, and sanity inside.