Inexplicable fear is killing this country

Aug 17, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Let us be realistic; a Guyanese citizen isn’t going to go public with what he/she saw if it involves the following – police brutality, police violations, governmental corruption, governmental decadence, illegal activities of big businesses, indiscretions of foreign diplomats, City Hall misbehaviour etc. People fear retaliation from power, wealth and status.
You cannot expect the sweeper lady, or the wharf labourer, or the cane-cutter, or the store clerk, to identify him/herself if they see a wealthy person commit a hit-and-run. The fear of having a midnight visit from a hooded gunman is real. There are citizens in this country with status and wealth who have killed people that they caught with their wives or girlfriends, or who have stolen from them, or who have threatened to expose them for illegal activities. Guyanese need to have this kind of information so they could know what their country is like, but fear stops that process.
Fear then, of retaliation from people with power, wealth and status is expansive in Guyana, and media operatives understand this. What is not acceptable is misplaced fear, fear that is totally out of context and totally unnecessary. Such fright has no place in the modern world. A sizeable percentage of humans in Guyana, perhaps amounting to 90 percent, have trepidation about inconsequentialities that should never happen in the real world, and perhaps do not happen elsewhere.
There is something that is deeply troubling about this nation. People are afraid to be identified with complaints that should be aired in public, because it is human and natural for any person to do so. I repeat; fear is understandable when you become a whistleblower and your action has important consequences. But surely, why should you be afraid to say that at a certain junction, grass on the parapet needs cutting because it blocks your vision of oncoming traffic?
Who is going to visit your home with an AK 47 if you pen a letter to the newspaper asking for the grassy blockage to be cut down either by the City Hall or the Ministry of Public Infrastructure? Who at the Guyana Revenue Authority is going to tamper with your tax returns if you complain through the media about the need to regulate unruly mini-bus traffic outside the supermarket? Who at the Georgetown Hospital is going to kill your hospitalized niece if you publicly complain that the zoo in the Botanical Gardens needs more space for the animals? Which newspaper or television news programme is going to plaster your face all over Guyana because you complained about traffic lights not working?
Looked at from any angle, this is fear that has no basis. It is about citizens exercising their right to bring to the attention of the relevant authorities the little (and emphasis should be on the word LITTLE) things they find annoying or discomforting. The example that you are about to read takes place in my life not every month or every year but every week. I am honestly tired and fed up with this morbid growth of misplaced fear in this country. It is a sarcoma eating away at the conscience and mental stability of this nation.
Monday morning I came out of Budget Supermarket on Sheriff Street after buying some lovely tangerines that were going cheaply. This neatly dressed gentleman came up to me. He said he always wanted to meet with and talk to me. I stretched out my hand. He shook it. He asked if I knew him. I didn’t. He asked if I knew Rohit Kanhai. I answered yes; that I have known him a long time now and he is one of the enduring figures of the Working People’s Alliance and a main WPA leader from the diaspora who owns and runs a Caribbean newspaper in New York titled “Caribbean Daylight”. I mentioned that Rohit was in Guyana two months ago. He said that he knew that.
He told me he is closely related to Rohit. And he described the relation. They are indeed close. What did he want to talk to me about? He had to wait almost two hours to drive out from the Providence Stadium. He wants to see multiple entrances and many exit points. I suggested he write a letter. He exclaimed; “no, no, no! He asked that I do it. I replied that the more voices raised on the issue, the more likely the authorities would listen. I was annoyed and abruptly walked away. He came to my moving car and said; Alright, use my name.” Who is going to harm him if he wrote on such a simple thing?

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