“The world is still deceived with ornament.”

Mar 16, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

These are the words of Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice) and they reverberate in present day Guyana as we are hearing salutary semantics from the media, some well known anti-PPP critics and from the opposition itself about cooperation from the Government.
This comes in the light of the release of documents about some foreign projects that were signed by the Jagdeo Government but whose details were not released to the press. Should we be talking about cooperation or democratisation?
Months after it was revealed in the Jagdeo libel case against me and this newspaper that there was not one African Guyanese posted outside as ambassador, a number of African Guyanese were last month assigned to foreign destinations.
Shamelessly, the Government said that the sudden burst of African Guyanese ambassadors had nothing to do with the court drama and Roger Luncheon’s straight delivery to Nigel Hughes in cross examination that there isn’t an African Guyanese in the country qualified to be an ambassador (and that man remains as Ramotar’s Chief of Staff).
Now we see a deluge of papers delivered to the opposition parties on contracts signed in relation to the proposed Marriott Hotel, Amaila Falls and the airport. Like a thief in the night that came out of the Kafkaesque darkness, the documents were delivered to the doorstep of the opposition by the shadows of dusk eyeing the torment of dawn where questions lie in wait for those who embosomed the secrets of state for twelve long years.
And to think that this Macbethian surrender is being interpreted as cooperation. Tell me if you think what I am about to describe is cooperation.
Your son has been stealing my fowls since the chicken and egg question came into existence. I got no satisfaction from the police because the local sheriff was your cousin. The sheriff got promoted to the city and my cousin replaced him. Sensing that trouble was coming your way, you release my fowls. How can that be interpreted as cooperation? Or if it was cooperation should the act not be qualified with the adjective in front of it – “forced”
Is this what is playing out with the Government and opposition and some have fallen prey to this deception of form but no substance and are shouting out loud about cooperation? No doubt the timing of the disclosures has to be contextualised and when that is done we are left with ornament not democracy.
The following question become pertinent – if the opposition did not table the inquiries on these investments in Parliament, would we have had the messenger of the night appearing on the porch of the opposition?
In this new psychology of the power possessors, where does it leave the flames of democracy that burned during the presidency of Desmond Hoyte but was extinguished by President Jagdeo? Where does the opposition go from here? Will they thank the government for the attitudinal metamorphosis (phrase originally from President Forbes Burnham subsequently popularised by later politicians and journalists) or will they free themselves from the ornament that is meant to deceive?
So the opposition got its documents, but what did the Guyanese people get? Well they receive the same knowledge that the private media and the opposition were clamouring for since Jagdeo became the Leviathan. But the Guyanese people want more than just knowledge about how, where, when and with whom Mr. Jagdeo signed his contracts. They want democracy.
So shall we not move from cooperation to democratisation? The people of Linden are still bullied into watching one television station only – NCN. Do you know what it takes for Lindeners to receive other signals? A piece of paper from the National Frequency Management Unit.
Once that entity signs a document authorising the extension of signals by other television stations, the owners send their boys up on the tower where they play with the wires and the signals are then transmitted beyond their present range.
It is not the government that has to finance this process. All the Government does is to give the permit on a piece of paper. “Mitta” Sharma will then get his boys to fix the antenna on the roof.
The public servants are still without an Appellate Tribunal. The Guyanese people are still without an Ombudsman. There is no paper work or money involved here to start up these institutions. They are dormant. They just need resuscitating. Let’s see what happens at the end of this month when State Boards come to an end.
Will the attitudinal metamorphosis continue to live or the ornament will decapitate it? Can’t wait!

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“The world is still deceived with ornament.”

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