H@rd Truths by GHK Lall – Fear stalks Guyana

Sep 01, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – It is revealing how waves of Guyanese willingly submit themselves to be hostages to the whims of a heartless government. It says so much about how so many citizens consent to the cruel games that one man plays with them, how he toys with them, and the many ways in which he makes a joke of their existence. Though spoken of, and written about, before, it is never good enough to rest on one’s laurels and say to self that the job is done. The job can never be done when so many citizens live in fear.

GHK Lall

There are those who have been made to fear their own shadows. Many fear their neighbors, and those with power in their communities. Then, there are others who sense a dread, that deep fear, of what could become of not only themselves but of what could befall those who are part of their extended circle of relationships. The fear is for the goons in the PPP Government, but mostly the fear is stoked by the mere consideration of the vileness that has been known to burst out from one man, and the hells that have bedeviled Guyanese afterwards.

Guyanese, both supporters of the PPP and outsiders know what it is to fear the malice of those at the top of the pyramid of the party power structure, and their specially selected agents. These guys in Guyana are a chip off of the old Gestapo block that once reigned supreme in Germany.

Speak a word out of turn, and they are on the way with vengeance in their stone-cold souls. Take a position that is out of kilter with the party and its leadership thinking, and the roof caves in on heads: they know better but didn’t live up to their side of the bargain. There is amazement that all those who said that they were about democracy and stood as guardians of it have abandoned that lofty post. Others find it incredible that many of those who made much noise on paper, and through clever uses of any available communication channel, have gone underground, lost their previous barks, and now lack what could pass as a respectable bite.

The sum and substance of all this is that Guyanese are afraid. Wounded and weakened by fear. Paralyzed by fear, and crippled into inaction by its close cousin, which goes by the name of intimidation. A man or a woman loyal to the PPP knows the score: keep mouth shut and thoughts to self, and a place in the party and government’s program is assured. Dare to develop any strain of independence, or that rank stupidity called conscience, and only regrets follow. What starts out as an individual problem could quickly mushroom into a widespread personal crisis. For, the PPP and its top people are so clever and so wickedly constructive that the hammer of termination and being cast out swings in the widest arc possible and bludgeons left, right, and center with the intention of mowing down all who have any relationship to the offender who belatedly found that he or she had conscience, standards, and regard for right.

The public servant, be he clerk or typist, could find themselves out of a job, or a contract, or the running for a house lot, or a scholarship. It is how well-sewn the PPP net is, and how extensive its fear-inducing reach. But that is only the beginning, for what has become part and parcel of the PPP Government’s standard operating procedures is to kick out the sons and daughters, cousins and nephews, and who knows who else, that is related to the first offender didn’t know his place, and mind his manners. In other words, shut up. Sitting down and shutting up is as good a guarantee that could be had of staying on favorable terms with the right people, and staying in place. Making oneself small is the passport to sticking around and being allowed to stay around.

The PPP is so low that it would, and has, used those little part-time jobs that pay $40,000 a month as the sword waved over the heads of vulnerable and needy Guyanese to bring them to their knees. Being a big hero with a big mouth is the quickest way to get a big kick out of the workplace door. Wear green, and not even the drains will be given to clean. Attend a rally of the enemy and be ready to crawl on your belly.

This is Guyana’s democracy in action in the shadows and the trenches. This is the ugly machinery that the PPP regime has put in place, and what keeps the previously agitated in place. Fear not only stalks this land of plenty and seas of lush patrimony. Fear has seeped into everything and almost everyone. Fear saturates the air; fear of vile political leadership reprisals is what shrouds many and makes a dummy and putty of them. This is the PPP’s version of democracy, accountability, and political integrity. They are all founded on fear, as wielded by one.

(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.)

GHK Lall, Government, Guyana, Guyanese, H@rd Truths

1 thoughts on “H@rd Truths by GHK Lall – Fear stalks Guyana”

L Balgobin September 1, 2023 at 10:58 pm

Mr Lall
Can you compare what is happening now to what happened during the 28 years of PNC rule.That was certainly the period in which Guyanese lived in fear .Come on be fair and honest!!!

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