Wrong call, wrong time, wrong people

Apr 16, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

I have been part of a school of thinking that believes only some form of different governance model will lift us out of the political and racial prisons in which we exist. But, as I observe what has long settled, and is now reinforced, by visions, passions, and events in the local environment, I am forced to recognize that there is only the coldest of receptions for such a position. For it is the wrong call to the wrong people at the wrong time at the worst of times.
When a different form of governance is called for at any time, it is always the worst time for such a thought or position, be such elections times or any other times.
I will take the easy and obvious objections to such an outlook first. A unity government of any sort is counter to fairness, and calls for such only surface when the PPP is in power, or believed to be poised to assume power. There is history and merit in such an assertion, which comes from PPP circles, and not many other places. Thus, there is flat out rejection based on what would be violative of accepted norms relative to standing electoral and democratic processes here.
Again, I submit that a broad-based national front government arrangement is more of where any sensible mind should lead. But the heart resists. The PPP may have the numbers and economics on its side, but it lacks the supporting bolstering architecture from the ground up. That is known.
For its part, the coalition (the PNC portion, perhaps all of it), once it is within the proximity of power, listens to none but itself; it hurtles down the road that distances it and damns it before the still most sizable segment of the population.
Unlike the PPP, and though missing the powerful component of the economic plank, the PNC persists with its confidence in the robustness of its significant presence on the ground and across other vital and sensitive sectors. And these are the irreconcilable differences and yawning gaps that both sides claim that they (and they alone) can fix. They couldn’t before; they definitely can’t now.
Both are unmoving in the vision that it alone should rule. And I again want to share what is known: that this society is not polarized around a ratio of 90:10; or 70:30; or even 65:35, which may be managed or overwhelmed with time. Rather, it is the near dead heat and clinch of almost even weight in numbers, with those on the periphery sucked into the vortex and grinder of unmoving racial competition and confrontation.
It is too close for anyone to believe – PPP or PNC – that they alone can make governance work and succeed, that they alone should govern. For that is what distils to pure racial governance and dominance; nothing more, nothing less. Like never before, this is not going to work today. But with this we insist on proceeding, while pretending that this is the solution, the only remedy. It is alright for everybody to make fools of themselves, but don’t try to make a worse fool of me.
It is why I say that, regardless of the outcome of process and count, what would result – for one side or the other – leaves this country and its segregated peoples in the most unconstructive, most hostile place. This was before oil; now it is immeasurably worse, as matters have progressed beyond the embers. It is burning, flaring racial hatreds crackling in Guyana today. But there is no listening, no accepting. Not even now, when we know more than ever that what we have for governance is killing us: mostly psychologically and practically, sometimes literally, too.
As proof, attempt to take the middle ground in this country and both sides swollen with racist bigots take aim; on this there is unity. I shake my head at the wastes of intellect and energies by the Indianists and Africanists here, who believe they hold winning cards. They hold the whirlwind; they have nothing but the decimating.
For those daring to take a contrarian view, there is demonizing by men who smell power, and like snarling beasts will attack any who venture to come near their food, their imagined waiting riches. At bottom: Indian must only be for the Indian position and black only for the black one; dangle something else and there is crushing.
I put all these together and my parsing confirms one thing only: nobody wants to hear of any unity government arrangement in any shape or form. It is rejected out of hand by leaders, diehard supporters, and fevered voters. There is neither traction nor reception. It is dead in the water. That is, unless forced upon us by those same people, who have always influenced every election in this country, going all the way back to the 1960s.
I believe that the Americans are working mightily via quiet diplomacy: the big stick of State coupled with softer speaking from the plenipotentiary and company. There is the key and they will force the cure, bitter for certainty, temporary by way of practicality.
Though vilification will come, this must be about country and not party. So I stand. To those loyalists and racial fanatics drooling for the drinking at the trough, I urge rethinking: accept half a loaf. Better that than nothing but the ashes of the pyrrhic.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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