The giant that never woke up

Jul 01, 2008 Freddie Kissoon

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Which Guyanese do not like their country? You will hardly find such people. They are countless number of Guyanese who aren’t coming back from the foreign lands to which they migrated. But those people will always carry a deep, longing memory about their country.
If you listen to the appalling nonsense the PPP Ministers preach and write daily against their critics, you would think that only Government Ministers love this territory.
Take the editorial of the Guyana Times for last Sunday. When the Guyana Times was born, this writer welcomed it. How could one do otherwise? The whole of Guyana knows that the Guyana Times and the governing political elites are close.
In fact, one journalist friend of mine, on application to join the Times staff, was interviewed by a senior Minister very close to the President. This was no reason to wish the newspaper a bad future.
In my article of welcome, I did say that competition is priceless and the Guyana Times as a competitor will push media operatives to outdo each other. The benefit will be journalism. Journalism is the winner now that we have four daily newspapers.
However, the Guyana Times must always be careful not to insult the Guyanese people. Once it goes in that direction, people will dismiss it. Its competitive energy will dissipate. I have always, and will always remark on this page and in every forum, that give and take a few extremists and outlandish few, the Guyanese people know their politics.
One compelling example is so instructive that it should always be borne in mind. Despite the tremendous popularity he enjoys in Guyana, C.N. Sharma has failed twice to reach the numbers that would have given him a seat in Parliament.
Why didn’t he swamp the poll? Because the Guyanese people know their politics. My quotidian encounters with the Guyanese people have informed me without a shadow of a doubt that few people in this country, including the PPP constituencies that voted them in, believe the PPP elites are good people doing a good job for Guyana. 
Last Sunday editorial of the Guyana Times was so grotesquely unrealistic that it came close to science fiction. Such editorializing is going to drag the Guyana Times down and give the Chronicle a chance to survive.
Here is an unbelievable quote from that editorial; “Guyana, the sleeping giant of the Caribbean has started to awaken.” If one is familiar with the psychoanalysis of Freud one would know that the use of the word “sleeping” by the writer was influenced by the Freudian sub-conscious. Guyana has been a sleeping giant since the British Government decided it will grant independence to the West Indies after the Second World War.
The tragedy of this rich country with wondrous, wonderful and winning people is that it is still sleeping and gives no indication as to when it will awaken.
The exasperating section of the editorial is when the writer compares India with Guyana and opines that just as India is on the march, Guyana is now marching too. Marching to where? To Region Eleven—in New York?
It is intellectual treason to compare the elected dictatorship of Guyana with one of the world’s most enduring democracies- India.
If there is anyone in India that has to be careful with what he says and does it is the Prime Minister. One wrong statement, one tactical blunder, one unsavoury policy-decision and his hold on power is in trouble. Just one telephone call to a judge to influence the direction of a trial and the Prime Minister will be disgraced.
No Indian Prime Minister dares tell the police chief who to arrest and who to charge.
Which section of Indian society would tolerate their Prime Minister telling the nation that he would not allow more than one radio station? His own party will dump him for such an unmodern statement.
Whoever wrote that editorial knows nothing about the politics of India. Even God would not be able to help a Minister, who in his fifties, molests a teenage girl, sixteen years old.
Here is another quote from the Times editorial that will make the Chronicle jumbie get up from his coffin and enjoy new life; “Thankfully, Guyana has many brilliant politicians and leaders who have the brighter day; who see the broader vision, and who are willing to facilitate the process of change.”
Nice it is to hear that. The statement in fact is true. Guyana has such politicians. The real truth about that group of brilliant politicians and leaders is that they have not been in charge since the fifties and are not in charge. Guyana will begin to move like India when these visionary leaders come to power. In the meantime the sleeping giant doesn’t even turn in his bed. Is he dead? 

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