Fascism in Guyana and the cult of the maximum leader

May 02, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

President Jagdeo is not as fortunate as President Burnham when the latter began to nurture the maximum leader syndrome. At that time all schools were public and school children had to march and parade in front of Burnham. The top schools like Queen’s College and Bishops’ had to join the process. Burnham got a huge attendance when he spoke at public rallies. As in Cuba, public sector workers were coerced to attend the public proclamations of President Burnham.
That was thirty years ago. Guyana has had a little change since then so that as they say in common parlance, it has “cramped Mr. Jagdeo’s style.” We can cite three of those changes. One is that there are large prestigious private schools that are not going to concede to the edict of the Office of the President that their students line the routes where President Jagdeo will appear.
Secondly, Mr. Burnham had support in the public sector so that even if he didn’t coerce large numbers, he still would have got some modicum of patronage for his public displays. In the case of Mr. Jagdeo, the process of African marginalization has left an ocean of bitterness among public sector workers who will not accept easily a demand for them to go to the airport and greet their President.
Thirdly, demography and geography are not in Mr. Jagdeo’s favour. The heart of Guyana is Demerara, particularly Georgetown. If you are going to procure large numbers for the public appearances of the President in Georgetown and its environs, there will be logistical problems. Such problems will not be intrusive in a place like Berbice. So Mr. Jagdeo had to settle for a mediocre ambience when he touched down at the airport after receiving an accolade for environmental protection. The school children in the area were rounded up but the numbers weren’t large. Then from somewhere, the organizers got a few attendees to listen to Mr. Jagdeo in addition to the Cabinet entourage who had to travel up to the airport to greet the leader.
Mr. Jagdeo showed courage at that little meeting he addressed at the airport on his procurement of an environment award. Psychological studies show that leaders are daunted when their audience is not of the impressive types and they seldom exceed their limitations. On the other hand, when the listeners are large in numbers and important society members are seated in front rows, the leader flows and his/her semantics can become phenomenal. One has to give Mr. Jagdeo his jacket. He could have declined on seeing how sparse the numbers were and they were mostly villagers from the surrounding areas.
The organizers of the maximum leader carriage aren’t going to take that chance anymore. They have already started. As you approach D’Aguiar’s turn, there is a large portrait of the President extolling him over his environment award. Then overkill stepped in. As you turn now to get into Public Road, Kitty, there is a similar paper cardboard stature. One gets the distinct feeling that these larger-than-life prints were always on the cards and the organizers were just waiting for the right moment. I haven’t seen other paper monuments but I guess it is safe to assume that similar items are on the East Bank and elsewhere.
These manifestations of the cult of the personality which is characteristic of fascism should surprise no one. An elected dictatorship in Guyana is out of control and we have reached fascist levels. All the pieces are coming into place. A law is now in place to bypass decisions of a judge and jury. The war on the private media is coming. The war on the TUC is already in progress. The carcinoma of corruption has reached comical proportions where no matter how graphic are the facts, they are ignored. Now we have the arrangement for the maximum leader to be adored, adorned and homage paid to him by school children.
We have gone back to the horrible days when school children were hauled out of the learning environment to sing songs on the roads as President Burnham’s entourage passed. Why were those school kids not at their desks? Why did they have to be on the road greeting Mr. Jagdeo? And, and this is a very important AND, given the rate Mr. Jagdeo leaves Guyana, those school children will become professional athletes in quick time. Every week they will have to go through their routine. We have been that way before. How tragic we are repeating the horrific and horrible sins of the past. Guyana is indeed a permanent tragedy.

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Fascism in Guyana and the cult of the maximum leader

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