The fear of elected dictatorship in Guyana

Feb 03, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I have seen fear in the eyes of the population when President Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana. My friends that I went to school with at UG and who graduated and took up jobs with the Burnham Government didn’t want to be seen publicly talking to me. One day outside of his workplace, the Bank of Guyana, I met one of my buddy pals when we were UG students. I didn’t know he was at the Bank, and I was glad to socialize with him. He was meeting his wife outside the Bank and I came upon them. In front of his spouse he told me he was afraid to be seen talking to me because he feared victimization.
This was in August 1979. That was thirty years ago. Sunday evening, I received a call from Mark Benschop in Bartica telling me that the owner of Platinum Hotel had refused his registration as a guest. My concern was for the welfare of Benschop, so I indicated that I have a contact in Bartica who could put him up for the rest of the night. I immediately rang Kaieteur News to inform them of this unfortunate incident that was so commonplace thirty years ago.
What was despicable and tragic was that the very reason my friend gave me outside of the Bank of Guyana in 1979 was the identical explanation the hotel owner gave Benschop – fear of retaliation by a government that is perceived to be vindictive
The propagandists at the Office of the President who put their qualification in the service of dictatorship would reply to this column here and say that the hotel owner doesn’t know what he is talking about and that the Guyana Government does not victimize people who criticize it. But though the action of the hotel owner was not right, it is understandable. He knows what fear is. He sees it in Guyana. But more importantly, he has witnessed the retaliation of the monsters that dominate his country. He saw President Jagdeo withdraw advertisements from the Stabroek News. He saw agency shop funds taken away from the Guyana Public Service. He saw the withdrawal of central subsidy from the Critichlow Labour College.
He saw President Jagdeo on television telling the business community to withdraw their advertisements from the Kaieteur News. He must have read about eight property tax forms sent to me by the GRA when none of my colleagues at UG and none of my friends in Guyana who have houses and cars have received these notices from the GRA. He must have read in the newspapers Mr. Jagdeo telling striking air traffic controllers that had they picketed him at the airport they would have been fired. The poor hotel owner in Bartica recently heard how Tony Vieira described the Government’s drive to marginalize his television station and he had to eventually sell. No doubt the gentleman in Bartica that refused accommodation to Mark Benschop lives in terrible trepidation of the Ministry of Works. They can arrogantly decide that a part of his hotel juts out on the pavement and Mr. Benn’s hammer will come into play.
The point is that all over this country, people are frightened of victimization by the PPP Government. I see this fright in the eyes of Guyanese citizens from police superintendent to army officer to senior public servant to small businessman to big investor to school teacher to state media operative.
I went to Wales last Thursday and Guysuco workers, police officers and school teachers were warm and friendly, but scared. Scared of talking to a person they know criticizes the Government and they feel they might be perceived as being sympathetic to an anti-government critic.
This is what occurred in Guyana under the Burnham cabal. But back then it was understandable even though it was wrong. Burnham and his little dictators were people of substance and training. They had a long history of political praxis. Burnham was a towering figure that was learned and politically brilliant. He had with him a bandwagon of well-educated cadres ranging from journalists to aesthetic experts to engineers to management consultants. Most of all, Burnham was a regional and international figure that commanded some respect. Out of this scenario he carved out an empire of fear.
Here in Guyana, the big dictators and their little underlings are the embodiment of mediocrity and incompetence. Strange that such creatures could enslave the Guyanese population. We are indeed a nation of sheep when such effete rulers could subjugate an entire country.

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The fear of elected dictatorship in Guyana

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