Wandering, wondering, wanderlust and the Overdeveloped State

Nov 08, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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In quite a number of columns, I have expanded on the concept made popular in political theory in the seventies by the Pakistani political theorist (deceased), Professor Hamza Alavi. He coined the concept of the” Overdeveloped State.”
One more time and certainly not for the last time, I will write on the OVERDEVELOPED STATE. Alavi used his paradigm to explain why the post-colonial state that the locals took over after the colonials left is as repressive as the colonial state itself.
For an excellent description of the nature of the post-colonial state in poor Third World countries, see the 1984 book by our own scholar, Clive Thomas, “The Rise of the Authoritarian State in Peripheral Societies.” Thomas did make use of Alavi’s approach for his research.
Interestingly, Thomas’s party, the Working People’s Alliance has state power by being part of the present government. Thomas himself holds a substantial position in the government along two other of his WPA colleagues, Dr. Maurice Odle and Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine.
Thomas is a brilliant scholar; the press and academia should engage him to ascertain if the application of the Overdeveloped State is still relevant in understanding state power in Guyana. Against the backdrop of the mistreatment of the vendors and the constant arrest and incarceration of poor people’s children for the criminal offence of wandering, it would be a most absorbing answer.
One wonders (one has to always wonder about Guyana) how Walter Rodney, if he were alive, would view the State of Guyana in 2016. One wonders, too, if the WPA has brought Rodneyite culture to the exercise of power in the Coalition use of authority from 2015 onwards
Alavi contends that the State in the colonial territory had to be repressive and insensitive because the State was a foreign stranger that had to contend with a subjugated population and the consequences associated with such an existence. The colonial state then had to be so large that it became coterminous with society. In previous columns, I explained that the colonial state was obsessed with security that service to the colonial subjects was not a priority.
Alavi contended that it was this huge state apparatus the locals inherited and they have used the State for the same old purpose only this time colour has changed. The State no longer protects the white colonial in Khaki trousers but the non-white oligarch. Security then remains an obsession of the post-colonial state while service to the people barely exists.
The Rights of the Child Commission and the Women and Gender Equality Commission want the criminal charge of wandering to be removed from the statute books. The statistics on incarceration from wandering vividly brings into focus the role of the Overdeveloped State.
According to Commissioner Nicole Cole, 70 percent of the youths in confinement at the New Opportunity Corp (NOC) have been arrested by the police for wandering. This makes you wonder if the Overdeveloped State ever changed even in minimal ways since Independence 50 years ago.
Cole goes on to say hair-raising things which no doubt causes you to wonder about whether the Overdeveloped State will ever wither away (one of the seminal predictions of Karl Marx) from Guyana. She stated that the police just pick up these boys and girls, charge them with wandering and they end up in the NOC. These children, according to Cole, on being arrested were not afforded opportunities to seek legal assistance. It goes without saying that these boys and girls are all from working class families and most likely in low income areas.
What is important to note about the Overdeveloped State is that it is coercive and not concerned with the provision of service. Relevant here is to note that Cole said that the children are not allowed legal help when picked and there is no provision for psychological treatment while at the NOC.
Reminds you of Alavi’s assertion that security and coercion are what drive the Overdeveloped State not service. So 50 years after Independence, we still arrest poor people’s offspring with the criminal offence of wandering. Makes you wonder; how does one cope with living with the Overdeveloped State.
In Freudian philosophy, there is the concept of sublimation. One relegates one’s pain, angst and memories into the sub-conscious and finds other avenues to cope with life. In Guyana, people get away from the Overdeveloped State as much as they could through the process of sublimation –charity work, NGO activities, social work, sports, the gym etc. For me, I engage in wanderlust. That is a German word meaning pleasurably strong desire to wander. Try wanderlust. It allows the spirit to freely roam.

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