The most dangerous myth in Guyana in 2022

Jan 04, 2023 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – There is a deeply written intellectual book of 1994 titled: “Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time” by one of the world’s leading intellectuals, British feminist and scholar, Dame Marina Warner.

In this volume, Professor Warner delves into all the dimensions of myths and the positive and negative functions they serve and have served. Her journey begins thousands of years back and takes the reader up to the late 20^th century.

For a meticulous analysis of this work, see the review titled: “Fear of Rabid Dogs” by Margaret Anne Doody in the April 1994 issue of The London Review of Books. Dame Warner warns us of the power of the myth. Once it gets into your head, it takes control of your memory.

Here is a relevant quote from Doody’s review: “One of the most appealing – most passionate – aspects of Managing Monsters is Warner’s plea for recognition of the falsehood of the objectified ‘Monster’. The Monster is ourselves. Efforts to exterminate the brutes will only increase our pathetic monstrosity. The more fear and anxiety we feel, the more stupid and cruel we become”

As 2022 drew to a close, two high-level intellectuals exposed the most dangerous myth that drew wide circulation in Guyana. The ubiquity of this myth was perpetrated by the mainstream media in Guyana that can be described as the Mordoch- like press.

In a letter in the print media, Professor Randolph wrote in the Kaieteur News of December 24, 2024 the following; “When civil society groups become too attached to political parties, or themselves act like political parties, they abandon a ‘sacred space’ which they are entitled to….”

Ralph Ramkarran writing on the last day of the year observed: “Unfortunately, national and international politics have stood in the way of Guyana’s development and, if given the chance, local civil society advocates, will derail this project….”

Here are two keen minds reflecting on what has become of the nature of society in Guyana in 2022. We have long held the belief that the press, NGOs, civil society and related groups are guardians of social stability, watchdogs of democratic governance and advocates of elected representation.

But has this been the reality throughout the ages. Are the press and civil society essentially the guarantors against unelected and authoritarian rule? Is that a myth that has been lodged inside our memory?

Isn’t history replete with examples where civil society, NGOs and civil society had their own agenda and that agenda was antithetical with democracy? The case of Bolivia may be a graphic exposure of that myth.

An elected president in Bolivia in 2020 was removed by one of history’s deadliest manifestations of the engineering of racial dominance against a political party of Indigenous leaders in which civil society activists and the press played no small part.

It has to be revolting to the mind to read the words of Mr. Ramkarran that need repeating; “…if given the chance, local civil society advocates, will derail this project….” What project is he referring to? Industrial development in Guyana.

Isn’t this an oxymoron in Guyanese politics that portends danger? How can civil society advocates whose raison d’être is to safeguard social stability want to undermine development? Maybe we need to quote Professor Persaud again for the answer: “When civil society groups act like political parties, they abandon a ‘sacred space’ which they are entitled to….”

For me, 2022 in Guyana was the year in which this myth not only survived but strived. I am moving to 35 years in the media and what I experienced last year, I never encountered before. Never before have I received so many complaints from people that their letters were not published by the mainstream media.

Every letter that accompanied the complaint was of a viewpoint that either was sympathetic to the government or supported the over direction of the government. Many were finely argued and contained strong intellectual points.

The disturbing dimension involved financial analyst, Joel Bhagwandin. It has to be a loss to intellectual debate that Bhagwandin’s learned economic points on the oil industry could just be contemptuously rejected for publication.

The press’s direction in 2022 does not auger will for the safeguarding of democracy. On December 30, I saw what I would never believe I would see in the mainstream media. Professor Persaud in a letter to the Kaieteur News merely mentioned my name in passing.

The Kaieteur News retained my name but in the identical letter to Stabroek News, my name was taken out. Such petty-mindedness I have never ever seen in the press in my career as a media operative. For me, 2022 was the year of Myth Exposure and Myth Explosion.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)