The people of this nation have no match elsewhere

Apr 10, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Here is a quote from a letter written by a prominent Guyanese, in the Kaieteur News in November last year, and directed at me and David Hinds, after we disagreed with the way President Granger appointed the GECOM chairman. He, on the other hand, endorsed the president’s method. The headline on the letter is “The bizarre world of our political dialect.” He found what David and I wrote to be bizarre.
After going through a tempestuous description of how the PPP has been rigging elections historically. He then came to the accusation of the PNC rigging elections. He called such accusation, “stock propaganda” and went on to ask me and David the following, “and while at it, remind me of public evidence for a PNC rigged election.”
So in this missive, he outlines a history of electoral rigging by the PPP, but wants to see evidence that the PNC did the same. I did not dignify that letter with a reply, neither did David, but we both discussed it and thought it was too irresponsible an outburst to reply to. Also, we thought that no one should respond to the nonsensical and bizarre exclamation that evidence must be provided to show the PNC rigged elections.
Since I mentioned the adjective, “irresponsible” here is the caption of a letter by the same gentleman published last week by all four dailies, “Letters should be composed with a sense of responsibility.”
In that missive, he carps about views of three letter writers for their critical stand on the government that he supports. This column is not about the two letters of this gentleman (friend of mine) but the kind of psychology you find in Guyana that in huge ways has undermined the moral fabric of this nation and is destroying it. First, he used the word bizarre to argue against persons who said that Granger was wrong to use the method he did to select the GECOM chair, and cannot see that his refutation of fraudulent elections under the PNC was equally bizarre.
Now he chooses the adjective “irresponsible” to confront three letter-writers who are not supporters of the government. In effect, he is saying when I endorse the government’s position, I am responsible; when you oppose the government you are irresponsible. If you read this gentleman’s letter on me and David Hinds, you would think he would be the last person to castigate letter-writers for lack of sobriety.
Before I come to the essential point of this column, let’s quote from this “responsible” letter in November last year.
Here we go; “… most of our wider public attention space is occupied by known politically centered vocal voices and scribes whose logic in many cases borders on a level of ‘sober insanity’ in what they expect to be accepted by the Guyanese public, in contrast to what is real in the lives and experiences of the people that this irrational political gaff is supposed to influence…When you my brethren, David Hinds and Freddie Kissoon sufficiently justify this request with the required criteria, I will turn myself in to the psychiatric ward on the grounds that you have proven me as a severe delusional fabricator, to also feel that the master Broker of Russia, Vladimir Putin has definitely inspired someone in the opposition to attempt to be his ideological copy cat.”
I now come to the central argument of this commentary here. It is attitudes like this that make rational narratives to assist in exterminating social repugnancies and solving intractable headaches impossible. The race problematic cannot be situated in the narratives, because one person arrogates to him/herself the authority to define who is irresponsible and bizarre and who is not. Another person finds it their God-given right to assign you a racist label because you endorse an ethnic party, but they refuse to put the label on themselves even though they belong to a different ethnic organization.
Some of my Indian friends support the PPP and think the PNC is an ethno-centric party of Black leaders. In their weird psychology, they are unable to see the other side’s mind, the mind of the Afro-Guyanese who believe the PPP’s Indian leaders are prejudicial against African Guyanese. For them, PNC personnel are ethnically biased, but not their Indian mandarins in the PPP. It is the identical situation with my Black friends.
I hear them label many Indian professionals as racist, because they had some type of connections with the previous PPP regime, but they utter not a word about Black professionals who are ardent champions of PNC leaders. What an unhealthy psychology Guyana possesses.

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