Hard truths…We must separate from the quicksand, crab dance

Mar 27, 2023 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – Fellow Guyanese, we must lift ourselves up by our shoelaces, even when we lack shoes. We cannot go on living as we have been doing all along. Guyanese existence has been snake pit, warzone, graveyard. Isn’t it time that we rise? I try. Severe turbulence comes.

A friend asked why participation on the David Hinds Show, for he is such and such…Seeking openings for a better Guyana, when invited, his warts accepted, the sum of his works, too. Uninvited, I wrote of the candidacy of a man revered and recoiled from in Guyana. I know Mr. Nazar Mohamed well, and despite his scorching truths, there was visualizing the merits of his presence on a community board. I regret that a trusted sister now looks at me most poorly.

When I offered some advice to Mr. Tamesh Jagmohan before, some partisan people speculated about what happened to me. Same ole, same ole…In dealings with Kaieteur’s Glenn Lall, I sense a true patriot; whatever else he may be, he is a warrior to the core. There is tarrying on for what is good for Guyanese (like Hinds, Mohamed, Lall). Occasional writings in DemeraraWaves give the PPP many conniption fits. Lall, again? Ditto for contributions to the Village Voice. Even in the weekly Catholic Standard, some wish no writings on the State of Church, race, poor, and related truths. I am serving Guyana, my fellows, and posterity, poorly maybe, but sincerely. We have to rise.

We are not rising. We are trapped in self-made snares. All over. We have come to love what is punishing, piercing, polarizing. I can hit hard, but cannot stay rooted in same place, will not be part of any such brotherhood, any local club. Sorry, my siblings of time and geography: Count me out. Spare me the hospitality of reception, of friendship, of consideration. Separately, the Americans must be contemplating what madness is loose in this land, given unusual public presents to the US Ambassador.

There is high regard for her work ethic, not for her American-flavored orders. The results worry, with all those Guyanese left outside the oil bus to squabble, scramble, and entangle themselves. How can any self-respecting citizen of any Motherland be different given ongoing leadership, economic, and social hemorrhages? George Washington, Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry would not expect less, and so should Her Excellency. Admittedly against the grain, but no man ever takes kindly to slavery. That is, other than the likes of Benedict Arnold here.

Right here, matters always deteriorate to a rabies-infested dog. I speak against the PNC, and the Hon. Attorney General Nandlall went into paroxysms of delight (‘deh so baad that even deh own damn dem’), in the media, and in parliament. Two other lovely lawmakers, a junior from Public Works and another from Labour gleefully identified yours truly as a ‘PNC’ man. The extent of intellect.

Then, when the PNC is broadsided, none but Mr. Joe Harmon, retorted that I speak from ‘a PPP script.’ If this is the best that either the PPP or PNC can do, then we are doomed. They, not me. Doomed we are, for when then President Granger was called upon to gracefully concede in the last elections, hell overflowed. From PNC corners. We have to move out from the morass.

Now when the PPP President, Vice President, and others are pressed for the credible and dependable, few are the Indians saying anything, standing for anything, doing anything. If all we are is about PPP and PNC, or Indian and African and nothing but-then we are dead men and women walking. The foreigners will walk all over us, and for sixpence too. We have to rise from the bogs, and descend from out of the treetops.

Before that, we all must learn to think. For all of my weaknesses, limitations, and they are many, I am trying. To think, and in probing for a way out of our quicksand, any ray of light that can be grasped at, no matter how feebly, no matter how fleetingly. I recall U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brandeis: sunlight, the best disinfectant, light the best policeman. Those capable must be disinfectant and police. I struggle to other Guyanese must also, if we are ever to rise.

The wish is the Vice President was a different brother. A wish wasted, a brother lost, but I am not giving up, for I was a prodigal also.The President mustgrow into a new reputation: trustworthy. Opposition Leader Norton must start over. If we are going to be better, rise any higher than where we are, then all must be better.

Search for the needles, hoping to discover a gem. Most of all, I must free myself, not be overcome by the suffocating staleness of a society stilled insordid stagnation, and loving it. The challenge is to look for the light. The biggest surprises are the sources from which a little of it comes. My Guyanese journey continues.

(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.)