Latest update October 31st, 2024 1:00 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Two poltergeists in 2008

Jan 12, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

 

 

 

This is a poor, under-populated country with a history of authoritarian rule but each day it produces curious and intriguing spectacles, and simultaneously tragic happenings. The past year may have been different from previous epochs because of the dastardly things that have happened on both the sociological and political fronts.

Over seventy-five percent of our population is too young to know what happened in the sixties. Leaders from the two racially defined political parties engaged in a war of attrition of which the ugliest aspect was the wanton killings in what was then named Mackenzie.

The Lusignan massacre in February took us right back to the sixties. It was perhaps the worst, single violent act in peace time in the history of the West Indies. Gunmen shot women, children and fathers in their beds in their sleep. It made the news around the world. Not since the sixties did we see such bestiality in Guyana.

Then another massacre took place in Bartica. Guyana was in crisis and it was time for a political consensus. We achieved that.

We were on a journey to something, though ill-defined, and not so fully thought out, that augured well for the future. All stakeholders agreed to a new direction and they accorded themselves the strength to get there. We were to have a change in the rules on how Guyana was to be governed.

Within three months from the second stakeholders’ consensus, a number of institutions would be in place, one of which was the long awaited Human Rights Commission with judicial authority. The Lusignan and Bartica horrors were the occasion used by the Government to achieve breathing space.

As the months went by, the Promised Land that came from the mouths of the leaders in Government in the wake of the wanton slaughter of over two dozen innocent persons petered out.

It was an unspeakable act of Shakespearian betrayal of political promises for which this nation should never forgive the PPP Government. My take on this sordid episode is that there was never any intention to pursue historic innovations. The Government feared that another destabilization act was on as what happened in 2002 when gunmen invaded Nathoo’s Bar on Pike Street Kitty and slaughtered people in cold blood and the violent assault on the last stage of the PPP’s Congress in Port Mourant.

When the PPP Government discovered that the Lusignan and Bartica invasions were not of the same mode, it went into reverse gear. The rest is history.

All the nocturnal creatures that hunt in the ghostly hours for political and total domination were roaming the nation of Guyana last year. It was if Guyana had returned to the only life it knew – Machiavellian plots, Kafkaesque sub-plots and Orwellian control.

Neil Marks reported in the Guyana Times that the opening of Carifesta was not as extraordinary as was expected. He was not even given a chance to apologize. He wasn’t even suspended. No mercy, no humanity exists in the Faustian corridors of power in Georgetown – Marks was fired.

His editor, Avery Gomes was soon to follow. But this Jaganite paranoia about the free press had claimed two earlier victims. CN Sharma’s license was suspended for four months even though he apologized. And David De Caires saw the resumption of advertisements to the Stabroek News only when the Guyana Times was born so that this PPP-supported newspaper could get its share of state advertisements.

It was hauteur and hubris that not even the Burnham regime was so arrogant to display.

In 2008, nothing politically comforting occurred in Guyana. The specter of Forbes Burnham, the apparition of Cheddi Jagan, the two poltergeists that destroyed Guyana many moons ago, were perambulating every corner of this numb, immobilized nation. The popular Doris Day song of the fifties, “Que Sera, Sera” took hold of the mind of every Guyanese. That Spanish title means; “Whatever will be, will be” and as I talked to Guyanese from every part of this forested territory, it was “que sera, sera.”

People just shrugged their shoulders and said to me; “Let them do whatever they want to; whatever is to happen will happen.”

There were funny moments, though, that distracted you from our nation’s precarious stance on the precipice. I found it funny to see my friend Barrington Braithwaite among dozens of other artistes in the picket line demanding his money for work done for Carifesta.

It reminded me of the time in 1987 I knocked on Barry’s door because we were researching police extra judicial behaviour. Barry’s wife came to the door and said to me; “Freddie, you want to get my husband killed nuh?”

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | September. 30th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

October 1st turn off your lights to bring about a change!

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Boxing Champion Elton Dharry returns to the National Stadium 

Boxing Champion Elton Dharry returns to the National Stadium 

Oct 31, 2024

– BAD BLOOD 2 punches off November 22 Kaieteur Sport – Guyana’s boxing star, Elton Dharry, returns to action in Guyana on November 22 at the National Stadium in a featured bout in...
Read More
Last word not yet said on irregularities Inter-Guyanese Games 2024 – de Ware Tijd

Last word not yet said on irregularities...

Oct 31, 2024

Shabazz departs

Shabazz departs

Oct 31, 2024

Dominoes action set for Sunday in Linden

Dominoes action set for Sunday in Linden

Oct 31, 2024

The GFF in crisis, football on the decline

The GFF in crisis, football on the decline

Oct 31, 2024

One of Guyana leading cricket clubs express grave disappointments about selection policy

One of Guyana leading cricket clubs express grave...

Oct 31, 2024

Features/Columnists

  • Where are the next of kin?

    …Peeping Tom Kaieteur News- There’s a troubling headline I came across recently, and, trust me, it wasn’t “Meteorite... more

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]