Does dictatorship attract the mad or madden those attracted to it?

Jun 19, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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There is something about dictatorship that sucks the soul of those that lie in its embrace. It is a chasm where irrational behaviour and eccentric semantics merge in a phantasmagoria of pyrotechnical nightmares and psychedelic escapades.
If you go way back to Mussolini and Hitler to Africa’s Idi Amin and Samuel Doe to Latin American generals, you find the overflow of macabre gesticulations, psychotic logic, insane speeches that lead to the definitive conclusion – madness lurks where dictatorship lies.
In the case of Libya’s Gaddafi, he donned the most unimaginable clothes that even a genius in the English language would not be able to describe. There weren’t words in any language to describe Gaddafi’s fashion. If any dictator since civilization began was mad, it was Gaddafi. It is either dictatorship attracts the already mad or sends mad those attracted to it.
As the years of power get longer, as the decades of domination appear permanent, the mind becomes a victim of false invincibility. Reality becomes blurred and what is irrational passes for normalcy. Weird semantics are in exhibition in Guyana as the corridors of power grow older. The mind of the unconquerable is wilting under the burden of the lust for control.
Maybe it began with Jagdeo. Arif Bulkan wrote a Stabroek News column on the Guyanese President while he was still in office and produced a photo to go with the article. It shows Bharrat Jagdeo celebrating India Day in New York and Jagdeo has his hands rubbing his crotch. A crazy Minister blurted out to the media, “I is a Minister that like to do illegal things.”
The Guyanese President looked like a typical Third World maximum leader when he was photographed in the press back-balling at an army Christmas party. It was a sight to behold.
A female dictator that was born in Guyana, stayed in Canada for a couple of years in which time she took Canadian citizenship. She has lived in Guyana since 1970 but perfects her Canadian accent with each passing day. It is one thing to have a Canadian passport, but a false Canadian accent is mentally troubling. Reminds one of Sir VS Naipaul, who suddenly claimed an Oxford accent after three years in the UK.
We got glimpses of Gaddafi’s fashion when a pair of female shoes worn during a visit to the White House was obviously incongruous with sober styles. But then again different strokes for different folks. If Gaddafi can wear outlandish shoes why can’t a Guyanese big wig do the same on a visit to the White House?
Clement Rohee comes into your picture whenever the polemics focus on dictatorship and its pitfalls. Rohee’s grammar tells an interesting tale of too much power for too long. Asked why in 2005 his American non-immigrant and diplomatic visas were suspended, the answer leaves one to question the stability of such a high-level power wielder. Rohee told the journalist that the Americans remembered in 1970 that he picketed the US Embassy over the Vietnam War and therefore cancelled his visas.
It wasn’t Rohee that was mad it was the Americans. After forty-five years, they discovered that Rohee had joined a picket line against them. To many it was a crazy thing to say that you are eligible to be president because after all’ “goat ain’t bite meh.”
The Stabroek News featured a photograph of Minister Jennifer Westford in April 2012 outside of her Waterloo Street Ministry showing her backside to a group of protestors that were picketing her office during the budget debate. If dictatorship doesn’t attract the mad then it certainly maddens those that live in its bosom.
Every school child knows the story of “Killaman.” After an act that ended in a suicide there was the gun-beating of a teenager in a bar over a young lady. Sounds crazy but dictators do crazy things
I cannot stop laughing over the PPP parliamentarian who advised Guyanese that the Sports Ministry cannot open up the three state-owned swimming pools to the public because people must know that they have to clean themselves under the shower before they jump into a pool.
But why should I laugh when such words tell the tragic story of dictatorship in Guyana?
Of course Lumumba, Gail Teixeira, Juan Edghill, Mc Coy, Prem Misir make for interesting study of dictatorship and the psychological consequences that flow.
But what about the Santa who is pictured in the front page of the newspaper meeting three banking executives from India wearing denim jeans and rolled up sleeves. And there is the really funny party-card bearer who imported three-wheel cars. Not even one was sold. Guyanese may be apathetic but not stupid

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