Maybe, the PPP has won

Dec 21, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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This is not a country for the faint-hearted. We have one of the most depressing political paradoxes in the English-speaking Caribbean right here in Guyana.

As the exercise of power gets more autocratic, the opposition to such dictatorship grows more invisible with each passing day.

This is in sharp contrast to the well-established democracies in the Caricom region. Guyana is the least democratic member of the Caricom family, yet there are more voices in the Caricom countries that echo condemnation and disapproval of the policies of their respective governments than what we have here.

If one examines the politics of critical reflections in these societies, one would think that if those Caricom states practise the type of unconscionable, cruel, corrupt, discriminatory policies that we see emanating from the PPP Government here, there would be revolutionary upheaval everyday among Caricom nations.

There are voices of protest in St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad about governmental misbehaviour, the type of which is a little tea party when compared to the political pathologies, moral nastiness, appallingly unbelievable levels of nauseating corruption, shameless discrimination, monumental failure of leadership that accompany the exercise of power in Guyana.

I met with an emissary of the University of West Indies who was in Guyana last month to look into UG’s needs. While he was sipping his juice, I asked him if the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies could be an election candidate for a political party.

I knew I had put my foot in my mouth. The guy almost choked when I asked the question. I had a talk with a Jamaican Government official who came for a Caricom meeting in Guyana two weeks ago.

I asked him if it would be allowed in Jamaica for Permanent Secretaries to be in the leadership of political parties and take part in general elections as party candidates.

There was a huge smile on his face. Without showing any emotion, he told me that Guyana has problems.
The tide of corruption, the waves of discrimination and the crescendo of incompetence are perversities that characterize the use of power in Guyana.

These are symptomatic of extreme political decay in this country that no other Caricom population would accept. But look at the opposition to this tyranny.

It is completely absent. It is no exaggeration to say that the PPP Government has won the day. It has no serious detractors.

Only the Guyana Human Rights Association speaks out from time to time. And there are the independent media.

The Alliance For Change can hardly be described as an impressive opposition party. The least said of the PNC, the better. One must inquire as to what has become of ACDA.

I read in the newspapers that longtime anti-dictatorship fighter, Andaiye, was honoured for her outstanding social activism over the long years by the Private Sector Commission.

I thought that when she received her award, her audience would have heard an impassioned speech on how terrible the use of power has become after all the sacrifice she made to see Guyana become a free country, free from fear, free from discrimination and free for the spirit of the Guyanese people to soar to greater heights.

Andaiye said not a word about the new dictatorship in her county. Maybe there isn’t a dictatorial government after all. She followed closely behind her long-time friend, Professor Clive Thomas.

This is the same man who in 2002 enunciated a theory of politics in his weekly Stabroek News column, he termed, “the criminalized state.” Thomas’s elucidation of this theory was clear and unambiguous.

He outlined a situation in Guyana in which the most powerful actors in the establishment have put the security resources of state at the availability of people involved in activities that are criminal in nature, namely the drug business and money laundering.

He posited an interlocking relationship between the two. In 2008, Thomas persisted with his paradigm in his column. I accepted this new approach to theorizing and did an essay on my KN page endorsing the theory of “the criminalized stare.”

This same critic of the Guyana Government was bold enough to tell us in another of his columns recently that President Jagdeo’s consultation with Guyanese stakeholders on the EPA was impressive and all-inclusive. This was a farcical process that lasted a mere two hours at the Convention Centre.

Where is the voice of a fine mind like Rupert Roopnarine? What has become of David Hinds? There can only be one answer to all these questions. It was just a mirage.

There is no unjust government in Guyana. The PPP is a great set of people. They have won and we should all just join them. Guyana remains a historical and contemporary tragedy.

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