America is getting a mouthful and earful from Guyanese

Mar 29, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Article 13 keeps raising the bar on Guyana Government practices, sharing a litany of its failures. The constitutional-driven name and number chosen by this civil society group could eventually turn out to be what is most dreaded by leaders, which is, their being exposed before the right people. What was placed in the laps of foreign presences, one officially resident, and the other formally visiting, speak so much about what is wrong in Guyana. It is of which the PPP/C Government and its leaders have given the tiniest of spaces to gain traction, of what it does not wish for Guyana to hear or know.
A US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State came and listened. She could not have been overjoyed at what was uttered. Another female American, one who had a most influential role in Guyana’s last elections, was also there, and she needed no repetition for enlightenment, since she is already familiar with the full story of what passes for governance locally. We say this, because only so much could be said in the 60 minutes allocated to the Article 13 group, which it did use wisely and courageously. Courageously because using the avenues made available, guaranteed, by constitutional provisions for freedom of speech marks those doing so for special attention and action. Neither is ever healthy in what is supposed to be this democracy of ours.
It seems that the more groups like Article 13, and citizens of this country, speak about widespread state and leadership corruptions, the more there is to say on this scourge that is killing us, destroying the promises of Guyana. And the more that freedom of speech facilities are employed in Guyana, the more PPP/C Government leaders come up with devious manipulations to suppress such speech by targeting the messengers.
Government leaders from the top down say that they are for democracy’s freedoms, that they are all for constitutional reforms, and that they are for inclusion and ‘oneness.’ The real story is that these same leaders are only about and all for total control, which clashes powerfully with claims of inclusion and this imaginary ‘oneness.’ From within the halls and across the functions of the National Assembly, there is this fundamentalist approach to control. It is either for us and with us, or being against us, and it does not matter what the issue is, how small or large. Alongside that are these glaring practices, which point to control of public appointments, control of public committees, and control of the budgetary process (refer to “Article 13 raises concerns with US on threat to freedom of speech, other national issues” – KN March 27). As we said in our caption for this writing, the Americans got a mouthful from Guyanese, and an earful of what they already know all too well.
For what we have here is not democracy, but creeping tyranny, with oil discoveries making it worse. It should be recognisable to Americans, who know more about the real happenings of Guyana than citizens of this country do. Americans have long been familiar with the sordid ways of leaders around the world, and though no saints themselves, they know crawling slavery and leadership tyrannies when they see them. It has been the great misfortune of Guyanese to have suffered these dictatorial tendencies, and this totalitarian fate under one government leader after another. Political party doesn’t matter, and the times are almost always the same.
In the aftermath of the dispute-plagued 2020 elections, and the long-delayed resolution of the results, Americans had hoped that a new kind of leadership mentality and practice would have emerged. Those hopes soon broke apart with what leaders in the PPP/C Government put into action. Similarly, an increasing number of Guyanese had harboured hopes that governance in Guyana would be different, taken to a higher ground. Except that nothing of the sort occurred, ever dawned in the heads of government leaders who already had well-laid plans on how to rob this country, and shout down those objecting. Now that we have this fabulous oil wealth, clean governance and the freedoms that go with that are of still more paramount importance. Americans have now heard, the pressure is being ratcheted up.

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