The government and its critics

Aug 26, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Last week the nation witnessed the PPP/C Government again, reveling in abusing dissenting voices. This time it was over the hijacked National Toshaos Conference. The respected Amerindians Peoples Association, independent toshaos, and even the opposition were the targets. In the past, we heard labels such as loonies, obstructionists, busybodies, and more heaped on citizens fighting for the good of this country. Last week was more of the same.

Descriptions- all derogatory have been dug up to bring scorn on the work of the APA and other Guyanese who are fighting for the betterment of their people.

A few months ago slurs like loony and obstructionists were hurled at women activists who were trying to hold the government accountable. We see this description emerging again against persons who have condemned the miserly increase to teachers, paltry pension and other handouts to pensioners, and the general lack of care towards those suffering Guyanese who need the help of the government.

There is now a settled culture in Guyana, where leaders lead the way with abusive language, and the army of followers in the government is only too delighted to expand and intensify the vilification and obscenities.

The PPPC Government and its leadership have earned an ugly reputation for secrecy on matters of oil and gas, on the environment, on what Guyanese are going to get from all the money already spent, or about to be spent. The Wales gas-to-energy project has been mired in disagreements and disputes from its inception. Instead of having honest discussions with Guyanese, the government and its leadership concluded that Guyana is better served by labeling and tarnishing the reputation of citizens found to be offensive. They are those who raise honest objections about oil and gas governance in general, and leadership impotence specifically. The PPPC Government is so low, so limited in standards, that women activists are attacked, and women in the independent media are singled out and battered by men of dark bearing, and the darkest type of character.

There is a female minister who has responsibility for gender violence. Yet when her own comrades inflict vile abuse on women who raise their hand to question or object, the same minister forgets all the positive and powerful things that she claims to be about.

Vice President Jagdeo these days revels in being a hissing, menacing presence when he is questioned, when his deceptions on the natural resources sector are exposed before the nation. Civil society in its widest representation comes in for the worst kinds of abuse and beating down by a leader who was a president for over a decade. He is the champion abuser, reviler, and denigrator, who seemingly eggs on his followers. The only thing that matters to the government is that it is allowed to have its way, regardless of how potentially unsafe (or uneconomical) it could be for the Guyanese public. The Wales gas-to-energy project is only one. The secrecies surrounding projects and spending are others. When government is the chief abuser, then citizens are the biggest sufferers, and the country is the worst loser.