Alternative Facts or the Big Lie: The tragedy that is politics in Guyana

Dec 30, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
My attention was recently drawn to the use of this age old strategy particularly by those in the political arena and seekers of high office. What is worst however, is the fact that these alternative facts are believed and in many instances acted upon by the gullible. Students of history can attest to its use by those who colonised Africa and so many parts of our region while brutalising the people of those countries by spreading the lie that they are less than human. Results, the tragedy of Enslavement. Hitler and his “Big Lie” resulted in the Jewish Holocaust. The underlying thrust is, tell a lie loud enough and often enough that sooner or later it gets to be accepted as fact.
Donald Trump as dumb and as incompetent as he is has mastered this technique. What gets lost however during the employ of this strategy is Truth and Fact and unfortunately, the gullible public seldom questions or do their own fact checking in most cases, until it’s too late. In the meanwhile, the purveyors of these colossal stories continue with business as usual and more of the same. They are never held to account or change their behaviours. As we in Guyana prepare for the upcoming elections, the public is bombarded with an avalanche of these ‘Alternative Facts’ and what is so tragic in the context of Guyana is once in office/power, these guys do the very same things and in some instances worst than those they replace, the losers are the people; it’s a never ending circle. Others will only continue to do to us what we let them.
Therefore, it’s up to the voting public to demand change and the place to do that is the ballot box. But will it be done by the voting public? I have my doubts, as I listen to some of the ‘Tripe’ coming out of press conferences in Guyana and the 6th grade nonsense coming out of Trump’s mouth at his MAGA, ‘Make America Great Again’ meetings and observe the enthusiasm of his hearers. I can only conclude, we get exactly what we deserve in allowing these snake oil salesmen to feed us the crap that they do over and over and over again.
It has been said before in the context of Guyana’s politics, we need a truly representative government, one that reflects all of our people or at least the two major ethnic groups while respecting the rights of all the other groups. A coalition with the dominant group calling all the shots is doomed to fail, as distasteful as it may be to Afro and Indian Guyanese, these political groups PNC, PPP need to get back to their original intent. That experiment failed, but isn’t it worth a try for the good of our country?
Respectfully,
Claudeston G. Massiah

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