All Guyanese must keep their ‘head on’

Apr 03, 2023 News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard truths…

By: GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – The PPP Government made its first concrete moves with Tacuma Ogunseye: wanted poster, arrest, detention.  I never thought that there would be difficulty finding him; or his surrendering into custody.  This has happened.  Where do things go from here?

Political prisoner signals hunger strikes.  This likely attracts global attention to the plight of left out Guyanese, impoverished citizens in an oil rich nation, roils the environment, rattles investors, and agitates observers. In all this, there is the stuff of unease and upheaval.

Topping the list of considerations, the people most on the radar, are Black Guyanese.  They have the most to gain, the most to lose, and their actions are sure to reveal much about their wisdom in their contributions to the stability and tranquility of capital city, outlying communities, and country. Considering this, I would hope that their leadership is well aware that one misread, one misstep, would be the equivalent of playing right into the hands of wily PPP Government leaders, who could be using the Buxton blowup to bait them into a trap.  It is a trap with great returns for the PPP, and great threats to both the standing of oppressed Guyanese, and their presence as a political group of reckoning, one that is of responsible citizenship.

So far, the sidelines are empty: fear, disagreement, apathy?  Numerous Guyanese shrank from what the now held dissident put face up on the table. We cannot go down that road, no matter how it may be appealing to some. It is a river of no return, one that can only suck us all into an uncontrollable vortex.  It is the wrong time, the temperature is unsteady, the environment not supportive.  In fact, it has been less than lukewarm to this point.

Allegations of possible sedition and racial incitement are the names given to the barrel of snakes Tacuma embraced, then let loose. Alarmed Guyanese are watching with bated breath, especially the ones hurting.

How does this unfold?  Who could get bitten?  To where does it lead ultimately?  What good is there in all of this for them?  Has this Guyanese brother, a longstanding warrior for his own people, unwittingly set them up and send them down a road that holds much danger for them?

He is in custody currently.  Some Guyanese are sure to be angry, may even overreact.  But this is when they must be most sensible, most disciplined, most careful; for there is nothing that would suit the interests of the PPP Government big-shots for concerned Guyanese to overreact.  Indeed, there is a tremendous amount of pent-up anger, sharp resentments, and hard animosities within upset Guyanese.  They harbour perceptions, real experiences of mistreatment, contempt, and the hated status of people being looked down upon.  In the best of times in Guyana, they have no role, but that of impotent bystanders, observers of their slow-motion freefall to the bottom of the local abyss.

It is why the WPA executive’s call resonates with some; somebody is speaking for them.  Perhaps, there will be a start towards some leveling of the scales, no matter how limited.  He did say ‘no guns’, which would be the worst development for this country.  Still, some foresee, at some time or the other, pressure on the street, outpourings of righteous anger, and expressions of passions everywhere.  It is my belief that any such pressure, outpouring, or expression plays right into PPP calculations.  Guyanese would self-destruct if they were so unwise as to let their political adversaries dictate their field of operation, and their comportment in it.

They should all think along these lines.  Tacuma is out of commission.  The PPP’s leadership expectation and calculation (bait extended) are that simmering rage in many Guyanese erupt.  This is what I think is being gambled on, hoped for, and waited upon patiently. That thinking must be neutralized; has proven a dud so far: few responding to his surrendering. Still, I believe that any manifestation of such rage could be cleverly manipulated, easily orchestrated, into tampering with the public peace, through property destruction, and citizens targeted.  It does not necessarily have to be at the hands of Black Guyanese.  It is tailor-made for PPP intellectual authors to arrange their own Black mercenaries to wreak havoc, and lay it at against the names of all dissident Guyanese.

In brief, any unmanaged reaction by genuinely angered citizens runs risks of feeding into the ready, convenient stereotyping of some as violent, dangerous citizens, and contributing to their being made into fall guys.  Their challenge is not to give such a golden opportunity to the government to be misused for unscrupulous purposes.  All that is needed is for the old histories to be dug up, dusted off, and dangled before their anxious supporters.  The fodder for rum shops, bottom houses, and social media would all be there.

Better sense must prevail.  There is a long, uphill road of struggle in store, but it must be on the right legs, with the right wisdoms, energies.  Success comes with pressure, peaceful presence, and persistence along democracy’s pathways.

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• difficulty, ENVIRONMENT, expectation, leadership, PPP’s, Tacuma, Tacuma Ogunseye

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