Pointed lessons for Guyanese

Mar 20, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It is the bloody story unfolding before a horrified modern world of people putting their bodies before official brutality and the bullets of the military state. In Myanmar, it was 51 citizens gunned down by security forces over the weekend, and many more in the days leading up to what is an intensifying slaughter (New York Times, “Dozens of killings and defiance in Myanmar, with neither side relenting” – March 14). This is heavy-handed government, that of entrenched generals, whose only logic is that of lethal force; it is the kind of compelling reasoning that they place before an incensed and determined civilian population that in its numbers and passions is showing no signs of pulling back from the carnage.
Myanmar is in a real fight for real democracy. It has been going on for decades in the face of harsh military crackdowns, which leave a trail of the dead and litanies of devastation in the aftermath. It is of ethnic minorities long fed up with the marginalization of their presence, the suppressions of their aspirations, by one military strongman after another. A Nobel Prize winner of their own took the world by storm, but she, too, was forced to yield before the unrelenting juggernaut of the country’s military madmen. So, thousands of members of the civilian population, once again, are taking a fearless stand via a nationwide civil disobedience campaign in an attempt at forcing matters to a pass from which there is no return. That is, other than for those returning dead. The numbers are mounting, the world is protesting, America is squeezing. But there is no give by the well-ribboned men in uniforms, who love power and the plunders that it brings for them and their families and cronies. The record is there, and it is barbaric and ugly; it is a 21st century version of cruel oppression, with second class citizenship being the norm for minorities. So far, the indications are they do not have the stomach for much more of the same.
It has been over a month and half since the nationwide action started on February 1. The military triggered the protests when it ousted the civilian government. This was what used to happen with some regularity, over a half century ago, and with more frequency in Latin America than most other places. Africa has had its share also, but for a military coup to raise its violent head in this day and age, and with such disdain for world reaction, is almost unheard of, simply not put into motion so unheedingly. But the military junta is not backing down.
In the district of Yangon, dozens are dead, and there is much destruction. But instead of recognizing the furies unleashed, the military has decided to fight fire with fire and declared martial law. This was an attempt at restoring some control after the Chinese Embassy formally called for the government to take resolute action to “stop all terrorism activities.” There is the likelihood that many more will die, more property torched. The people are enraged, and they will neither be intimidated nor deterred. Governments must be more of partners and not oppressors and slave masters, and who mislead them either through trickery or the terrors inflicted. In this, there are pointed lessons for Guyanese, who are content to stand on the sidelines and let government after government here walk all over them, and trample upon whatever little dreams they may have had.
According to the New York Times article referenced above, there was a call from the leader of “a self-declared government formed in hiding” to ethnic rebel groups fighting against the army for the longest while to join in the struggle for “a federal democracy to replace military rule.” And to which he added the heavy reality and this comforting thought, “the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close.” The former Speaker of Myanmar’s House, Mr. Mahn Win Khaing Than, also noted to his countrymen that “This revolution is the chance for us to put our efforts together.” However far he gets on that score, the going is going to be hard and uphill, because military governments do not readily raise the white flag.
As history has taught us, from Spartacus to South Asia to South Africa, whenever the people put their heads together, overwhelming forces either give way or get going. There is a lesson for Guyanese there.

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Pointed lessons for Guyanese

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