Do Guyanese believe the horizon is freer?

Sep 25, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One of the factors that kept the culture of silence alive during the PPP regime, beginning with President Janet Jagan, was the ubiquity of fear. Most of the violations of the government from the time of Mrs. Jagan’s presidency until the last days of Donald Ramotar, went unprotected. People lost optimism in politics and became more resigned to the country’s faith of an enduring autocracy.
‘It was under President Jagdeo that the culture of fear took over. The Jagdeo regime went into directions that had no parallel in Caribbean history. Infamous drug traffickers were known to be close to the corridors of power. Prominent dissenters were either arrested or victimized. The independent press was targeted. The State became a colossal oligarch. The culture of fear was preserved because citizens saw the State as invincible. People were resigned to the fact that Mr. Jagdeo could do want he wanted.
When the PPP lost power in May 2015, there was a huge outpouring of euphoria. No doubt the overwhelming sentiment was that there would have been greater freedoms, fewer violations, less State intolerance and the culture of fear that so took over Guyana will wither away. This has not happened. On the contrary, naked display of power is making people fearful again. It is unimaginable the complaints people have of State autocracy but more incredible is the fact that an increasing number feel that they should still seek the help of the media, well known human rights activists and other avenues, rather than the elected politicians whom they thought would fashion a horizon of greater freedoms.
Not one damn thing has changed in my life as a human rights activist since May 2015. The same cries, pleas, implorations and appeals I received during the Jagdedo/Ramotar period, I get and I am getting. People came to my gate before 2015. They still do. People at the supermarkets complained to me before 2015. They still do. People interrupted the free flow when I was with my family, to ask for help. They still do.
People stopped me in the middle of my National Park perambulations to speak about violations. They still do. People came up after the church service or after at the wedding reception to talk about their plights. They still do. Vendors rushed up to me at the market to sing sad songs of harassment. They still do. People called my cell phone non-stop about police mistreatment. They still do. UG students sought me out with sad tales of a dysfunctional school. They still do. People would stop me at the court entrance to describe their sad ordeals with the judicial system. They still do.
I endured all these attitudes before 2015. They were a weight on my life. I fought the battle in May 2015 to change Guyana into a freer land. But where is the freer land? All the encounters that so burdened me before 2015, are still resting on my conscience sixteen months after may 2015. Every word that is written here about my human rights experience before 2015 and the continuation of such experience after 2015 is true.
I heard so many dehumanizing tales of wrongs committed against the poor and powerless that on many occasions I went home depressed. I am still going home depressed. I recount some encounters as recent as last week and readers will see how an unchanging country this is. The acting Police Commissioner of Police can tell you; I wrote to him just last week.
The injustice and violations are not coming from State institutions only. They take in the entire gamut of private and public power. How do you explain what is taking place at City Hall, NCN, the saga of libel threats against the Guyana National Broadcasting Agency, exploitation at private security firms, barefaced sentence disparities in the courts among other social morbidities yet we are supposed to be freer country after the PPP lost the 2015 elections.
How do you explain this continuation of morass, pessimism and autocracy? A newspaper column will not be sufficient to explain it. A discourse on the subject will involve deep intellectual reflections. But a brief note can start the polemic.
Guyana has not experienced a more encouraging, optimistic horizon because it has not produced post 2015 leadership that has shown any vision of transforming Guyana into a land of liberty and justice. Once such leadership is absent, old ways, old habits, old style, old instincts of enduring authoritarianism will continue. Powerful people with private and public power, moneyed people, people with status and authority will continue to brutalize the poor and powerless.

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