The heart has its reasons, Mr. Persaud

Mar 05, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I would like to thank longstanding public servant, Mr. Nowrang Persaud for the kind words he penned on me in a letter to the newspapers. Mr. Persaud hopes that I continue my human rights activism. I don’t know Mr. Persaud. I don’t know what he looks like or ever saw him. I know about him by reading about his long service in the public service and the sugar industry.
Though I acknowledge his kind words, I wonder if he knows how deeply flawed the ontology of this country is, that makes the struggle for betterment almost impossible. This is not your run of the mill land where things fall apart as in other places in the Third World, then, these nations pick themselves up and move on. Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad had moments like that. Few economists would describe Trinidad as a typical Third World place. Singapore is certainly not Third World.
But let’s get back to human rights and the struggle for betterment. I am describing this column as a philosophical education of Mr. Persaud. I hope he doesn’t object, because I honestly mean no insult. He is much older than I am, and I am way into my sixties, and he is as educated as I am. By an education, I mean trying to put a philosophical portrait on a country that I feel is so far gone that it may not be redeemable.
Even with the flow of oil money, I do not think this country will become redeemable. Russia is the largest oil producer in the world yet since original times, from Tsar right down to Putin, the Russian people have never experienced true freedom. Soon in Guyana, oil money will flow, big state buildings will go up, oil money will be stolen, poverty will remain and the lack of concern for life will continue. Oil money will come to Guyana but not rationality, love for fellow humans, recognition of right over wrong and the values of civilization.
Mr. Persaud suggests I continue my activism, but is this a country where activism can bring change? I have been active since I was sixteen. If I am now in my sixties count the years and ask me what I have achieved for my country in the realm of rights over wrongs.
It is outside the scope of a mere newspaper column to philosophize on the ontology of Guyana, but a brief note should suffice. My take is that Guyana’s conscience and the values that inhere in civilized society got lost in the result of the confrontation between Forbes Burnham and Walter Rodney. The society from thereon lost its psychic integrity and successive governments from 1980 to March 2017 have failed to generate the psychology of normal thinking in Guyanese.
The fear I live with in this country is that no one places a premium on life and liberties. Human rights struggle in such a condition (which reminds one of vintage Thomas Hobbes) becomes a Sisyphean task; or to put it in poetic style, an impossible dream (which reminds one of vintage, Don Quixote). You look at every realm of life in this country, and you see the loss of a nation’s collective psyche.
Take court sentences. Less jail terms are handed down for gruesome homicides in which unspeakable violence took place than non-violent crimes. I remember a man got 45 years for a non-violent crime and the same judge sentenced a man to 12 years after he pleaded guilty to robbing and killing a businessman whom he followed from the bank.
The GRA charged a working class man for not paying taxes for yearly dances he held in a village in Mahaicony. He went to court, flipped out, and jumped to his death in the Mahaicony River. No one uttered a single word of disgust. Hundreds of billionaires pay taxes far less than what teachers and policemen pay. No one utters a word of disgust. An 18-year-old girl was sentenced to six months imprisonment for leaving Guyana with a speedboat to Suriname. Not one voice denounced such unspeakable punishment.
Honestly, Mr. Persaud, this country named Guyana is not a viable one. For me, and I am entitled to my opinion, after more than fifty years of activism, I see this country as a dead zone. Maybe I am wrong. I hope I am wrong, but 50 years of activism tell me I am right. Again, I thank you for the kind words, but the heart has its reasons. I am riding out into the sunset to spend my remaining years with my family and two pets.

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