Latest update June 13th, 2026 12:40 AM
Dictatorship by instalments
Dear Editor,
I read about the mayor of Georgetown protesting about the steady drift towards dictatorship after he was excluded from a meeting of the city council top officials. Such lament is long overdue from the collective voices of people. I am not aware, however, of the same mayor complaining that city council elections were not held since 1994 perhaps because it suits him well to remain unchallenged as mayor. Nevertheless, I fully agree with him about the steady erosion of rights and freedoms. The fact is that people get the government they allow and tolerate or oust the ones they rise up against or do not vote for. Guyana does not have a military dictatorship –it is a civilian dictatorship which gradually takes away their rights and freedoms due to lack of vigorous opposition and protest, division among groups, complacency on the one hand and special treatment and opportunities for selected favourites and associates, on the other.
Even in tiny Belize (one tenth the size of Guyana with less than half its population) a country where I lived for 20 years- after leaving Guyana and before coming to Canada- there are 12 radio stations- none state owned. The governing party owns one and the opposition owns another and all the rest are privately owned. TV stations are also owned the same way-none by the state. People wake up in the mornings and have a wide choice on what to listen and look at. Some stations attack the government and some support it and people call in. Even government officials including ministers call in to give their take on matters of concern. They also appear as quests on these shows and take questions from the general public. The result is that action is taken when many people feel strongly against or for something. Many wrongs are righted in this way and issues are followed up, promises made and investigations started. It is democracy in action. There is still much crime but most of it is drug/gang related now dealt with by a Gang Suppression Unit –GSU. The Prime Minister even take action against errant ministers by way of demotions and suspensions and this minimizes wrongdoings. Moreover, there is an Ombudsman and a Contractor General.
The people have formed organisations such as COLA (Citizens Organised for Liberty through Action), Belizeans for Justice and Mothers against Crime. These organisations are formal with executive and ordinary members and they take to the streets picketing, demonstrating and rallying when something such as preventive detention, crime and oil drilling affects them strongly. They get results in that politicians act on public opinion and clamouring so that they can get elected. Sadly, many Guyanese support political parties blindly, vote according to race and not policies and are idle and non-responsive when they are supposed to take action.
What we have is the Guyanese equivalent of the German (Rev. Nie Moeller) analogy – When they raised the taxes I said nothing because I was self-employed and did not pay taxes; when they fired many employees I did not say anything because I had a job; when they bulldozed the squatters without allocating house lots I ignored it because I owned property; when they removed radio and TV programs I did not say anything because I no longer had a forum to express my views and protest. When we allow this to continue unchallenged and unchecked it inevitably gets progressively worst-democracy by instalments- and sometimes backfires. This happened to PPP high rollers who supported the practice of democratic centralism (dictatorship by the inner cabal) until they were sidelined when the presidential candidate was selected. Only then did they publicly advocate election by the general membership. Prior to that when they were not contesting, it suited them.
The result is dictatorship in stages accompanied by to arrogance, callousness, all forms of favouritism-cronyism, nepotism, racism, corruption, sweetheart deals, bloated contracts and government initiated and sanctioned harassment, persecution crime and punishment. I close by repeating that people get the government they allow and tolerate or oust the ones they rise up against or choose not to elect. Take your pick.
Karan Chand
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