365 nights and days of fascism in Guyana

Jan 03, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It has gone. It has passed into history. But I will remember 2010 as a year of meaning for me and my country. I prefer to be less personal, though I need to quickly remind readers of a state-organized attack on me in which a miasmic substance was thrown on me; a state-organized attempt to break up an academic conference in which I delivered a paper on the failed presidency of Mr. Jagdeo; the petty attitude of ordering workers not to clear the weeds in front of my home; and as 2010 neared its end, an attempt to keep me in the Brickdam lock-up from December 21 to 28 on the simple charge of traffic obstruction.
I thus have vivid reasons for remembering 2010 but there was the bigger picture; my application of the concepts of elected dictatorship but particularly fascism to the Government of Guyana can now be adequately defended in any scholarly forum. Since 2005, I argued that there was a creeping fascism in the Jagdeo presidency. By 2010, any scholar could have adumbrated with voluminous evidence the existence of fascist methodologies in the exercise of power in Guyana. This essay is a presentation of some aspects of that body of evidence.
The defining moment of tropical fascism for me last year was the suicide of a very ordinary, poor Guyanese man. Suicides occur in this land with increasing frequency but there was something fundamentally cruel about this particular episode. He was charged by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for holding a yearly dance in his village of Calcutta, Mahaicony and not complying with the tax laws. It was an incredible act on the part of the GRA. In most countries, if not all, such a person would be ignored by the tax authorities. What made this specific case extremely bestial is that tax evasion by the rich, the very wealthy and the nouveau riche in Guyana is as ubiquitous as the perennial grass.
Unable to comprehend why he was charged and unable to raise the $40,000 bail, he fled the court and jumped into the Mahaicony River. He died leaving three small children.
That was Guyana in 2010 where fascism crept up and became full-fledged fascism because an opposition that is emasculated and horribly incompetent cannot even pretend to be an opposition. On the last day of 2010, they were in Parliament giving praise to the elected dictators for raising the age of entry into the army from 16 to 18. Not one word came from these mediocre creatures about the stupidity of keeping the retirement age of the army at 55 in the 21st century where retirement age is slowly becoming an anachronism. Our domesticated, sycophantic, enfeebled opposition crept into Parliament and praised the elected fascists. No doubt the elected fascists were laughing at them. In 2010 these are the opposition leaders we have produced. But what was scary about these pathetic politicians is that they came to us last year and asked us to vote for them in 2011 so they can run the country.
If you are looking for a label to describe fascist Guyana last year, it would be “Night of the Generals” taken from the name of the famous movie on Nazi Germany. The generals did what they wanted to Guyana, and not even the fishes in the trench moved. Enchanted with sea-side properties, the generals secretly bought up public lands in Sparendaam. To protect themselves they plan to live next to the Sparendaam Police Station. The little fascists brought down a polygraph team, administered to it to the CANU hierarchy, said they failed it and peremptorily dismissed them. No one in the land knows where this team came from or if the men indeed failed the test. The generals had put their lackeys in place as fascism is wont to do.

If any episode in 2010 reminded me of “Nights of the Generals it was the frightening tale of a pink suitcase. A police dog handler searched the luggage of the DPP at the airport. The DPP wrote the police demanding his punishment. A strange punishment came to him. He was charged with trafficking in cocaine. He was spared a jail fate when his brilliant lawyer, Nigel Hughes moved to the Full Court. In 2010, the courts stood between the little fascists and the general society. It is interesting to see if elected fascism will defeat the courts in 2011. With the type of opposition we have and the fear that stalks the territory of Guyana, I am not optimistic. But the struggle will have to continue. It must.

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365 nights and days of fascism in Guyana

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