The drift towards disaster was inevitable

Feb 20, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The first thing that comes out of the mouth of your philosophy professor as you sit down for your first lecturer is that you must never see human behaviour in scientific terms. He would go on to say that humans are not inanimate objects that are dictated to by scientific laws. And indeed that has been the case since civilization began.
A light paper thrown from a high rise apartment will adhere to the laws of gravity. A ship on the water follows the laws of flotation. But humans do not follow that pattern. A woman may still love a man that beats her and endure that indignity for decades. Another woman may get her brother to kick his backside in.
One aspect of human society that appears to our eyes to fit a scientific pattern is the nature of dictatorship. Try as hard as you want to believe that human behaviour cannot be predicted, the story of dictatorship forces you to think that when all is said and done, we humans are like the light piece of paper thrown from the window or the ship on water. Dictatorship is indeed predictable and because it is, we know what eventually happens.
First, let us get out of the way, the concept of dictatorship.
I like debating with Ravi Dev because his comical antics make me laugh and in Guyana one needs to laugh as much as possible to take one’s mind off of the tragic nature of our country. I remember Ravi once suggested that I see a psychiatrist. I thought he would have suggested the hair specialist, because I have a problem with my hair growth. My hair just does not stop growing. I can cut this thing and in two days’ time, it is long again. Ravi of course knows about the hair growth process.
Then Ravi replied to me and wrote that in the 2006 national elections, Indians stuck with the PPP because they were afraid that if they went over to the AFC and the Africans stuck with the PNC, then the country would have had a PNC Government. Ravi disappeared for years in replying to me when I told him that in the same 2006 elections, the Africans deserted the PNC for the AFC and African-Guyanese never for a moment thought that if they voted for the AFC and the Indians stuck with the PPP, then you would have an Indian Government again.
The most comical aspect of Dev’s polemical exchanges with me was his rejection of my description of the PPP under Jagdeo as an elected dictatorship. First Dev contended that if a government is elected freely then it cannot be described as a dictatorship.
Secondly, Dev gave me a definition of dictatorship that he borrowed from a writer who defined it in a book written in the late forties. Since then there have been endless typologies of dictatorship.
The term dictatorship refers to how power is used, not only how it was acquired. In a country that freely elects its government, that legitimate administration can still be assessed as tyrannical based on how it uses power. An elected government can torture and jail citizens; plunder the country’s treasury; repress the media and devastate the rule of law.
The regime rulers can resort to autocracy and oligarchic violence out of the belief that it will win elections again. We cannot wash away its vicious tyranny because it was re-elected. The brutal leaders can be foolish enough to think that re-election can insulate them from their totalitarianistic behaviour.
So if they are reelected, does that mean they didn’t commit crimes against humanity? For a good adumbration of elected dictatorship, see the work of Fareed Zakaria and his theory of liberal constitutionalism.
The PPP Government is still locked in the elected dictatorship that Bharrat Jagdeo clothed it in. It is slowly drifting towards implosion and disaster. And it was inevitable, because dictatorship follows a deterministic pattern. Dictatorship cannot turn back the clock. It cannot appease its critics. It cannot compromise with its opposition. It cannot resort to generosity. It cannot seek negotiated settlements.
Too many instincts prevent dictatorship from embracing democratic changes, of which fear of retaliation is its greatest nemesis.
Dictatorship follows the logic of defiance, continuing hubris, continuing infallibility, of continuing messianic pomposity. Each day, the fear of losing power tightens its grip. In the end, the law of diminishing returns sets in and the implosion followed by disaster is the result. At the moment it just doesn’t look good for the PPP Government. Maybe Gail Teixeira and Roger Luncheon will consult Ravi Dev for survival advice.

Latest News

The drift towards disaster was inevitable

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

The wait is over, all roads lead to KMTC for their Grand Boxing Day...

Xhiya Hercules – flipping the script towards...

Road Warriors, Bent Street, Team Cruel &...

Deol maiden hundred outshines Matthews’ as...

Moraikobai village two days football competition...

BCB thanks cricket fraternity for strong support...

Features/Columnists

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals!

Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will

Christmas – reality and possibility

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The drift towards disaster was inevitable

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]