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Ian McDonald: The ultimate test of human decency

Dec 10, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I was interviewed several times by Yog Mahadeo. During the period of the election rigging, Yog hosted a programme on Kaieteur Radio.
A few weeks after Dr. Ali was sworn in as president, I got a telephone call from Yog. He said he detected an uncomfortable feeling (my word; I can’t remember his) on my part on how I relate to him. My response was brief. I told Yog I hardly socialise and generally keep to myself (David Hinds said I never stay out beyond 10 PM). His perception on how I feel is wrong. If he is reading this I would be happy to accept an invitation of lunch at his expense because I know he is a wealthy gentleman and I will offer my views on his organisation named Article 13.
I pen those paragraphs above because I feel that my lack of being part of mainstream socialising has caused me to lose golden insights into some interesting humans in Guyana. Looking back I wished I had met with them. Ian McDonald is one. I never saw him. I like his philosophical and poetic reflections on life. When I read him, I wish I could engage him on the thoughts of Martin Heidegger in his magnum opus, “Being and Time,” my favourite philosophy book.
Mr. McDonald must have caused the eyes of all Guyanese who know about him for the past 60 years to open beyond wideness last year. When the Election rigging was going on, he wrote about his disapproval. People who know him and read his books and columns would have been stunned because he is as remote to politics as the Japanese soldier who in 1972 was discovered hiding in the jungle because he did not know the war had ended in Japan after 1945.
Mr. McDonald does not offer political comments. He is a cultural icon in Guyana and he sticks to the realm of culture, the arts and literature. It was surprising to perhaps all those who have read him over the long decades to see his reaction to the election rigging.
Twenty months after the rigging was defeated, Mr. McDonald expressed his rejection once more about what took place from March to July last year (see his last Sunday column). Here is what he wrote: “Properly constituted authority could never have derived, for instance, from the very crude attempt to rig our election in March last year.”
I would ask readers to pay special attention to the pronoun Mr. McDonald used, “our”. Words we use reveal what we have deeply buried in our minds. His use of the word “our” denotes that he saw himself as part of Guyana and it is his country. If you are looking for answers to explain why Mr. McDonald took that line he did twice in his columns, then there can be no Freudian analysis, no sophisticated analysis.
It was basic human decency at work. Mr. McDonald came to two conclusions when he saw what was happening last year. One is that elections must be fair and rigging elections is wrong. Out of that process you cannot get a legitimate government. I am one thousand percent sure when Mr. McDonald penned those lines last year there was no thought of PPP versus PNC and I don’t want this or that leader to win. He used the word “our” meaning his country. Enter Article 13.
This group issued a press release about the Attorney General’s (AG) condemnation of the critique of the amendments to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) by civil society groups and named the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA). The question is not whether the chastisement by the AG of the GHRA is merited or loose but if it reflects the objective situation in Guyana on the biology of the GHRA.
The AG queried the physiology of the GHRA and asked why it was silent when election rigging was going on but found its voice to condemn him for now correcting flaws in ROPA to prevent a reoccurrence of what took place in March last year. The GHRA has a right to comment on the amendments. But in the same vein, the AG has a right to question the credibility of the GHRA and expose its hypocrisy if he has the proof. The proof is Ian McDonald.
Mr. McDonald passed the ultimate test of decency. I was surprised that Yog could have come to the defence of the GHRA when Yog himself was a relentless voice against election rigging for several weeks. I conclude with what I have always seen in Guyana. Those who set out to solve the problem become part of the problem.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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