Election agitation, and the sway of words

Jan 13, 2019 Countryman, Features / Columnists

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By Dennis Nichols

I am not a gambling man but as a working teenager in the early seventies, I punted, betting on horse races being staged in England. We knew little about the horses, jockeys, and track conditions, other than what we read in the racing forms, and from the local announcer’s pre-race commentary relayed from the U.K.
Punters put great faith in such information, some as if their lives depended on it, which I think they did. We read the forms, listened, and placed our bets. We won little and lost much, but we kept on playing, waiting for the big win that never came.
There are elements analogous to a horse race in a country’s governance and national elections, even to the long shot hopefuls. And yes, there are all-too-frequent upsets, and our lives as ‘politic’ citizens do, to some extent, depend on who we elect to run the affairs of our nation. Guyana’s topsy-turvy political world grew topsy-turvier three weeks ago when government MP Charrandass Persaud upended the no-confidence vote against his government, leaving many of his sure-bet comrades in a state of agitation, scratching their heads and readjusting their sagged jaws.
Then came the words – a profusion and confusion of statements, opinions, and rhetoric by the government, the opposition, the media, and the populace, that we are trying to make sense of.
A number of ‘C’ words now hang uncertainly in the air – complacency versus confidence; conscience and conspiracy; the latter being peddled by non-opposition elements, and to which are now added collusion and connivance claims by the opposition leader opposing the Attorney General’s contention that the no-confidence vote is invalid, and therefore of no consequence, even as civil society groups suggest compromise. And with all this, we are expected to view such considerations objectively, and make informed decisions at the poll.
Many of us must have long wondered and pondered how in God’s name ‘good’ educated, so-called honourable politicians, lawyers, and law-makers in our nation can produce such muddled and conflicting views on so many fronts, and how easily people can be thus swayed one way or another. I am reminded of Brutus’ and Mark Antony’s speeches in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; how just a few minutes after Brutus’ delivery justifying the murder of Caesar, Antony was able by skillful and subtle rhetoric, to spin the heads and hearts of the Roman crowd, and agitate it in the direction of vengeance for Caesar’s death.
We have our own Brutus and Antony characters (wannabes) in this country, but for the most part they appear to have more sophistry than sophistication in their arguments. They represent sides, and each perpetually wants to have one up over the other.
I think it was sociologist, Professor Ken Danns, who declared that Guyanese have cultivated a ‘rip-off mentality’ which although not the same as one-upmanship, may help explain the latter, and why our political leaders and their followers seem so greedily polarized when it comes to matters of governance and national development. You see it in their actions which are preceded and followed by words, except when they scheme quietly, before they pounce.
These are confusing times, and when people are confused, their decision-making apparatus can become easily skewed, leading to rash thoughts and actions with sometimes frightening consequences.
Even as a child I was aware of how words can unsettle minds and trigger violence, like the propaganda and palaver prior to, and during, the 1962 – 1964 period of unrest and violence. I was aware that some persons felt marginalized and alienated, and did terrible things because of the ‘them and us’ perception. A man told me nearly 40 years later that he had sliced a woman’s breast with a cutlass because she was laughing at him. She was of a different ethnicity, and therefore one of ‘them’.
Surely that kind of thing can’t happen again. I mean both the action and the reason behind it. But we humans are such fearful and erratic creatures, and it takes such a little spark to start a conflagration. Many of us at this time don’t like what we are hearing and reading about, especially from our political leaders and their minions. Unbelievably, the race card is once more subtly emerging from the pack, and some Guyanese are once again fearing that our country is being viewed as an object of ridicule and scorn by foreign eyes.
Political leaders may provoke their followers, and foes, to commit horrible acts, but when expedient, can assuage the angst of both. They do so using words that appeal to our supposedly higher instincts of caring, preserving social order, and safeguarding our collective patrimony. But even then it can be a ploy to allay suspicion. With oil on the horizon for example, it is they, along with a clique of savvy professionals and business people, who will likely and eventually reap its biggest harvest, of course after Exxon et al. They know their power, and wield it like a conductor’s baton to produce symphony or disharmony, and to buy time until they get what they want.
Right now, following the government-opposition dialogue on Wednesday, President Granger and Mr. Jagdeo seem to have bought a tenuous sliver of time, for themselves, their parties, and the country. Again, it was words, some of reason and compromise, that helped shaped the outcome. Nevertheless, sharp disagreements still barb the process, and the higher courts of our land are preparing for landmark hearings, quite probably pulling the Caribbean Court of Justice into the fray.
When they do, words will pour voluminously from learned lips, and filter down to us, laymen and women looking on and listening up. They will no doubt be echoed on the streets. They will appease some and roil others. But with the tradition of rumour and the relatively new phenomenon of fake news, they can do much more than placate or provoke anger. So much is at stake here, including the very purport of our constitution and nationhood. The constitution is a document of words, but those words may also carry a ‘spirit’ just as they can connote more than literal meanings. Remember ‘fit and proper’?
Time will tell. My opinion is that general elections will be delayed well past the March 21 date being pursued by the opposition, which is already dissatisfied with what is seen as the government’s business-as-usual tenor. Discontent can swiftly degenerate to dangerous levels of agitation and … you can let history and your imagination complete the thought.
I am cautiously optimistic about what will happen in our country over the next 18 months or so. My betting days are over, but if they weren’t, I would probably go with one of those ‘C’ words I mentioned earlier – compromise. It helps tone down the arrogance of the winner, and diminishes the anguish of the loser. It allows reason and common sense to triumph over selfishness, tribalism, and one-upmanship. It’s the word for this season.

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