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Apr 18, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I have mingled with some brave Guyanese who are now in their mid sixties and some even going further on who have outstanding human rights records dating from the autocratic and unhappy seventies right up to the loss of power of the semi-fascist rule of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal.
Every one of those men and women who fought for rights, justice and freedom against the Burnham Government and continued to do under the tyrannical hegemony of the PPP regime had said to me if the PPP was reelected in the May 2015 election, then that would be it for Guyana and its freedoms. Without exception, they all believed that under Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar Guyana had reached the very bottom of the pit of moral and political turpitude. I have spoken to some Guyanese icons who at the first rush of blood would exclaim loudly that President Burnham was manifestly autocratic but felt Jagdeo took Guyana in dark directions Burnham would not have gone
As the days pass, Guyanese in and out of the land are seeing dangerous signs of a doomed future. Things are happening in this country that make one feel that we have not left the past behind. I will digress and go to Nazi Germany. The consensus among historians on Nazi Germany was what such massive atrocities could not have reached the state of genocide if the average German didn’t acquiesce, chose silence or was plainly uninterested in what their leaders were doing. The historian vividly pointed to the citizenry’s lack of concern about Hitler’s madness. They paid for such an attitude and paid dearly
Whatever faults Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan had, their exposure to the inequalities of a harsh, colonial world has deep psychic effects on them. Both men were very far from being ideal post-colonial leaders, but their nationalism preserved their love of country. This was what was palpably missing with Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo. Except for active PPP politicians who are beneficiaries of Jagdeo’s hegemony and those villagers who support the PPP blindly out of ethnic worship, the definitive conclusion of the rest of the Guyanese people is that Mr. Jagdeo’s rule was the worst in Guyana’s history.
One look at Georgetown, and once you were over sixty then you knew Guyana was heading for disaster. One look at UG once you were educated there in the seventies, then you knew Guyana didn’t have a future. These are only two examples. So much has been said about corruption and foreign exploitation of Guyana’s resources that details need not detain us here. If you are a believer then you will accept that the hand of God intervened to save Guyana in May 2015
There is a philosophy text I have that has an interesting explanation as to why people suffer when there is a God who can prevent it. The adumbration goes like this – God created space for humans to conduct their affairs and he gave them the independence to act as good souls; you cannot fault God or deny that he exists if humans chose to go on the wrong path. This story is graphically applicable to the present situation in Guyana
If you rewind the tape to five years ago, the story of Joe Harmon filled the space of the living room in every home only the name wasn’t Harmon. In you rewind the tape ten years ago, Bobby Vieira was there insulting journalists from the private media only the name wasn’t Bobby Vieira. If you go down memory lane, the Chronicle was a mouthpiece for the government of the day with a plethora of smiling ministers on its front page and nothing else. The Chronicle in 2016 is the same bent, limping old man who has lost his compass and cannot find and knows not where he is going. If you rewind the tape to five years ago, the emotional fervor to support ministerial friends who committed endless indiscretions saturated the air. The incestuous embrace is still there in 2016
These tapes are still playing in 2016 and the tunes are far from mellow and enchanting. One is tempted to go back to the explanation of why God allows suffering. God paid special attention to this country in May 2015 and said to it that I am giving you one last chance. Will the chance be grabbed with both hands? You study philosophy and you are bound to end up as a pessimist. But pessimism for the average Guyanese was never a choice so you didn’t have to study philosophy to become one. God will not give a second chance. He normally doesn’t do it.
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