Cotton Tree – sounds like the weeping willow

Sep 12, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I believe that the bullet dodged this past week will return in some form, at some time, to remind Guyanese of what went down and not to get too full of themselves or too complacent. The bottom-line lesson is, don’t take anything or anyone at face value.
A revisit of the crime scene, many crimes, at the now myth-shrouded Cotton Tree tells a curious tale that ranges from the criminal to the political to the diabolical. Guyana traversed the scorched earth that is its racial wretchedness that bounded from the politically motivated to the politically orchestrated to the politically indefensible, then to that of political insipidity and, last, to political retreat.
In the midst of the machinations of more sophisticated city brethren, there was a slew of conspiracy theories, which will outlast all participants, observers, commentators, and outsiders. And to top all of this off, there came late word of ritualistic murders and other whispers that bring great dread, especially the one about obeah. What was really at work here that wounded and battered so many, that cost so much, that embittered so much and leaves such a terrible legacy for the future, and that has revealed so much, yet so little?
Editor, I do not know where to begin. But I know this, much damage was inflicted on the peoples that had cause to pass through the areas during those times, and to encounter the protesters in one violent traumatic form or the other. Much damage has been inflicted upon all Guyana, who had to watch or read, and to absorb the so-called mysteries (no great mysteries by themselves) and to parse through and make sense of the shifting tableaus – all savaging – that set back this country’s interest, if it had any, in genuine reconciliation by a decade at least.
If it was a ploy at grabbing or sharing power, by other means, then it has fallen far short and way flat, and leaves the foulest taste. To what lengths? If it was a crude political taunt, then who could be so beastly to start with two young men made into unwilling sacrificial victims to satiate our extreme wickedness and the evil lusts that leave all gasping for breaths not coming easily? This was not political opera; it is the dark political underworld that is beyond the contemplation of most clean thinking Guyanese, who flinch from going where the dots connect and to the roads where they lead in this country.
Who is really whom? And what was actually what? It is doubtful that authentic and reliable answers to those questions and the significances of them will ever be part of the public record of us Guyanese. Thus, we are left to do what we have become extremely proficient at doing in this society, which is to imagine the worst, and conclude still worst about our politics, its sleazy players, and the outrageous practices in which they engage.
I wish it weren’t so at any level, but though not the daily norm, there is always probing for opportunity to unveil something that astounds and leaves terribly disgusted with the way we are and must be. PNC Chairwoman, Ms. Volda Lawrence, came out a tad late (but she did, to her credit) and said this has to stop, and it is not who we are, nor who we want to be. I hesitate, but bow before the weight of her appeal, discarding my initial reaction towards questioning, as to authenticity and credibility. In the same spirit, I heard the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Joseph Harmon, step forward to say that his group is not about the two major races engaging in the kind of conflict (largely one-sided, to be true) that had unfolded. I must yield to the maturity of the moment, despite my misgivings. For if I don’t, then what do we have, what is left?
Similarly, I wish that President Ali, had displayed the astuteness to outthink and outflank his adversaries and made a move at the earliest on Monday towards the grieving Cotton Tree families, and then to the wider community. After all, he is the leader of this land, and no place at no time should be off-limits to him. That he did not, I regret, which is as sharp as I will be today.
Undoubtedly, there are many pieces to be picked up from the ‘carnage’ (to use the word in motion at the moment) from this latest descent into Guyana’s self-created hell. We have learned a few things, but the most consequential are still incomprehensible and out of reach. We must get by with what we have towards better. All is well that ends well. Something tells me that well is not the most appropriate word at this time.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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