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Freddie, we are not getting back to that era that you long for…unless…
DEAR EDITOR,
An article by popular columnist Freddie Kissoon entitled “Guyana: The untouchable class and the poor and powerless”, is a sad but factual reflection of how passive the humanities landscape in Guyana has become, relative to the 1970’s.
Kissoon wrote, ‘Where is that Guyana where people fought for justice; where people revolted against the rich pulverizing the poor; where university students rebelled against society’s injustices; where workers downed tools over their mistreatment by rapacious employers; where academics sought to teach the masses about their legal rights; where lawyers were willing to fight on behalf of the downtrodden masses; where pickets and protests greeted bigoted people who discriminated against dark skin colour?”
This lack of energy, this passivity did not come about overnight. Prior to independence, the political elites channeled our energies towards fighting the colonial masters. After independence, the dictators that emerged slowly started the retrograde steps of the citizens, into passivity.
Over the last fifty years, we had been subjected to the whims and fancies of the governing elites until we have been unconsciously indoctrinated into silence. Now, we are as passive as debris on the beach, being tossed by the waves.
I can understand Freddie’s longing for the days when,”university students rebelled against society’s injustices” and so forth – given the injustices perpetuated on the masses by the ruling elites of the 21st century in Guyana. These injustices have been nothing less than blatant.
The theory that “Governments should be considered as servants to the people” has never been an inkling of reality here. Our present constitution stipulates that the people should be consulted on “matters that may affect their well-being.” That has never happened. For the citizens to stand up and demand redress is to invoke the spirit of victimization within the all-powerful governments.
Freddie Kissoon and Maurice Arjoon are living examples of Government targeting individuals. The office of the Ombudsman, constitutionally designed for citizens to seek redress when treated unfairly by governments, had recommended that Kissoon and Arjoon be compensated.
Those recommendations, rather than being executed, seem to have been thrown beyond the back burner by this present Coalition government. This is the kind of disrespect that continues to be perpetuated on the people by successive governments. Will this reign of terror by governments ever stop?
Fear has taken hold of the masses; because successive governments continue to superimpose themselves on the State’s apparatus, creating a dictatorial stranglehold on the people who had elected them. As a result, activism to stop corruption or the excesses of Government is dead, from grassroots to University.
This is the sad state of our so-called democracy. Freddie Kissoon wrote, “In today’s Guyana, the untouchable class can do whatever they want and enjoy impunity and immunity.”
Unless our constitution is enacted with stringent punishment to be enforced by prosecution, the untouchables’ reign of terror will continue over us, Freddie. We are not getting back to that era that you longed for unless that happens.
Rudolph Singh
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