Our blinkered view

Jan 09, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The views of news blogs are representative but not of popular opinion since only those who have access to the internet use blogs. Internet access in Guyana is not widespread. The views expressed in the blogs are representative of the ethnic divide in the country.

A common leitmotif links the arguments on news blogs. In general, the supporters of the APNU+AFC respond to criticisms of the government by pointing to the alleged sins of the PPPC and the supposed failure of those criticising the ruling coalition to be similarly critical of the PPPC when it was in office.

In other words, the supporters of the APNU+AFC seek refuge in the position that the PPPC also did terrible things so what is wrong with the APNU+AFC doing the same. Or that those criticising the present government lack the moral authority to do so because of their silence over the misdeeds of the PPPC.

It as if one of your child’s friends comes to your home and tells you that he was beaten up by your son. Your defence is that the friend should not be making such an accusation because he has done the same to some other child, so he is receiving his own medicine. Or that he should not complain because he is also an abuser of other children.

The crime is therefore absolved because of the fact that the accuser may not be consistent or upright. The supporters of the APNU+AFC do not see the irony in claiming that the coalition they support represents change but is being judged by the same standards as those from whom the change is necessary. How can the APNU+AFC claim to be different or better than the PPPC when they hold themselves to the same dubious standards of the PPPC?

There is a rational explanation as to why intelligent supporters of the APNU+AFC are refusing to be critical of the excesses of the present government. It boils down to ethnic insecurity.

The fear of the ‘other’ is what drives the supporters of the ruling coalition to look beyond the misdeeds and mistakes of the government. To be critical would, in their estimation, strengthen the hand of the opposition and it is this fear which is responsible for the seeming irrational positions taken by the supporters of the ruling party.

It is not that the supporters of the APNU+AFC cannot be objective. It is not that they do not know that there is little for the new government to shout about. It is not that they do not care that the nation’s patrimony has been sold out in the deal with Exxon.

It is not that the supporters cannot take a principled position on issues, a position which may be at odds with what the government says. They can but would not because local politics, in their blinkered view, is a zero sum game. Criticism of the government provides support for the opposition.

As such, they examine issues through the distorted lens of ethnic insecurity thereby refusing to judge issues on their merit and through objective criterion.

The same argument can be made for the supporters of the PPPC. In general, the supporters of the PPPC are no different from those of the APNU+AFC.

So how can any country improve when people take such positions? All it does is to encourage corruption and a lack of accountability. In any other part of the world, those who lied and deceived the nation about the signing bonus with Exxon would have by now been forced into involuntary retirement. But not in Guyana because half of the electorate will come to the support of those who were part of this controversial deal and half, even without knowing anything about the deal, will parrot the view that government sold out the country.

There is little or no room for middle ground or independent thinking when the people are caught between these two behemoths. And this is the tragedy of this country.

But what about the young people? Should they not be rejecting ethnic politics?

The young people who are supposed to be the changing the culture of ethnic insecurity because they are not born when the old politics was in its heyday. The young people are therefore not supposed to be contaminated by the old politics.

And they are not. They are contaminated by adults. Ethnic security reproduces itself in society and the young, socialised in such an environment, end up being no different than their parents.

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