Monkeyland, donkeyland or failed state?

Dec 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One of the problems of those who have fought against President Forbes Burnham Burnham is that there is a strong fear of national embarrassment if they admit that the Burnham Government was a little nuisance when compared to the frightening dictatorship of the PPP since Dr. Jagan died They fear the exclamation – well, you were wrong to fight down Burnham.

Many have admitted it quietly to me but they are scared to do so publicly. I have made my decision – the Jagdeo presidency has features that are more authoritarian than the Burnham regime and the present PPP Government is more corrupt, less nationalist, less humane and less concerned with the poorer classes than when Burnham ruled this country.

This is a declaration I have to live with and I do not fear any backlash. We were right to confront Burnham. Nothing was wrong about that praxis. Everything is wrong about feeling ashamed to say that the PPP Government turned out worse. Human rights activists and freedom fighters do not go about feeling ashamed that they fought against one dictatorship only to see it succeeded by tyranny.

The point is that you go on fighting and go on hoping that the present autocracy falls. We have a chance in 2011 to exorcize the monstrosity of PPP domination from Guyana in the general election but that depends on how all of us who want to see the back of the PPP behave. The opposition forces have to start energizing themselves.

Everyday in this country, we see how worse the present cabal is when compared to the Burnham administration. At some point in time, this comparison will no longer apply. I believe it has already. There is no way Forbes Burnham would have tolerated a Permanent Secretary signing over 50 duty fee bogus letters and that person carries on at his Ministry as if he did nothing wrong.

In the eyes of the dictator, he didn’t do anything wrong. President Forbes Burnham would never have accepted a high-level officer in his Presidential Secretariat soliciting sex from a minor. This official carries on as if he did nothing wrong. In the eyes of the dictator, he didn’t commit any sin.

Today in Guyana, the friends of the king can do anything they want, not just about anything that is the norm in dictatorships buy ANYTHING. So this big businessman friend of the king refused to accept a marshal’s delivery of a judge’s order. He chased away the marshal.

In a normal, functioning democracy, the courts would have ordered the arrest of the king’s friend. You cannot refused entry to a marshal or abuse him. A marshal is a functionary of the courts. But in Guyana, the king’s friends and the king himself are above the courts.

Interesting to note that in the Memorandum between Guyana and Norway, there is a section on accountability with words that subtly implies that Norway expects Guyana’s kings to observe the Constitution. I would suggest you read that Memorandum to see how Norway thinks about the Government of Guyana.

Would President Burnham have allowed the GDF Head to possess five SUVs and they all have the same license plate? It is not that Burnham was democratic but he was definitely against his state employees doing whatever they want with the territory and society of Guyana. Under the king, his friends feel that they can do as they feel, do as they please.

This ubiquity of naked power is easily observed by the entire nation because it has no limits. It was Lord Acton who once wrote that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. In no other time, are we witnessing the inexorable march of absolute power than what we see in today’s Guyana in which the friends of the powerful have no restraints put on them. Guyana has become a donkeyland or a monkeyland where powerful politicians and their acolytes observe no moral and legal rules.

It is not that Burnham wasn’t abusive of the authority invested in him. He was. But Burnham still had some nationalist integrity left in which he refused to countenance the monkey and donkey things his high officials did. I remember Vic Puran was an advisor to Burnham and there were complaints about the signing of duty free letters. Burnham had the police investigate Puran.

Under the king, a Permanent Secretary stamped his approval of far more documents than what Puran was accused of. This was Burnham for you. The little dictators have no shame. While sugar workers cannot collect their weekly wages, the CEO of their company takes home $2.5M monthly. Welcome to monkey/donkeyland!

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