The government is not you

May 31, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Buju Banton came, entertained and left. But the debate that is ongoing is less about his terrific performance and more about his controversial reference to Roger Khan.
There has been a deliberate attempt, by persons associated with the APNU+AFC government, to put their own spin on what Buju Banton said at his recent concert held at the National Stadium. Yet, those who are claiming that Buju did not say or mean what he was recorded as saying, have provided no audio or video to justify their take on his comment about Roger Khan.
The Almighty has given all of us powers of understanding. We can listen and comprehend. We do not need spin doctors to tell us what was said or what may have been meant. But in a polarized nation, it is easy for self-appointed spin doctors to try to influence our interpretation of what someone said and what they meant.
And we give these spin doctors permission to insult our intelligence and offend our God-given faculty of comprehension.
The APNU+AFC supporters were obviously embarrassed by the actual comments made. And they are because they have come to associate anything which can be interpreted as not being in the interests of government or the APNU and AFC as being against their own personal interests.
Anything that is seen as uncomfortable for the government or ruling parties is discomforting. Criticisms are taken personally. Regardless of the source, criticisms of the government are seen as reducing these supporters sense of self-worth.
PPPC and APNU+AFC supporters have long been brainwashed into accepting that criticisms of their governments are criticisms of them. And thus a defensive and reflexive reaction occurs whenever anything adverse is said about their governments.
The government is not you. And you are not the government. Why therefore should you become offended over comments about the government and the ruling parties?
Governments have long served vested interests. In most cases, these interests are not about you and me. So why fuss and fret in trying to defend a government which is middle-class in its representation and which looks after the interests of its friends, family and cronies.
Who is it that are being handed the top jobs in Guyana? Not you; not me; not our children.
Do you know how many eligible persons are denied positions today in the public service because many jobs were not advertised but instead handed to friends, relations and cronies? Your children and my children have to go through the normal process of applying and hoping for a job opening while those with the connections are fast-tracked into positions.
The public knows what is taking place. So why the bother over comments which can be interpreted as not being in the government’s interest?
The PNCR has always been controlled by the middle class. And middle class leadership has always been concerned with protecting their interests and using poor people to do so.
The PPPC, under Jagdeo, was seized by the middle class. And it came to be dominated by an oligarchic class which decided that it was not worth holding local government elections because it would cost a few billion dollars the oligarchic class wanted diverted to other sectors from which they would benefit.
The middle class runs things in Guyana. And once you do not belong to that class, you should find no cause to blindly defend the ruling parties, whether they are the APNU+AFC or the PPPC.
The middle class friends of the government are receiving the top jobs in the country, receiving the fat salaries and enjoying government contracts. What are you and me receiving? Why therefore should working class persons become personally offended by criticisms of the government?
By the sweat of thy brow thou shall earn. That is how the majority of the population makes a living. But for a minority, it is by having the right connections.
People get offended by criticisms of their government. They get excited and agitated. They concoct the most ridiculous excuses to defend the government. If you cannot see the flaws in the party you support, how are you going to identify your own flaws? Buju said what he had to say. He has gone back home. And yet Guyanese are quarreling about what he said and what he meant; and all for the sake of protecting the parties and government which they support.
No wonder Guyana is in such a sorry state! We have our priorities lopsided.

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