The AZMO effect

Mar 14, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News- The establishment in Guyana, like a poorly constructed outhouse, is beginning to creak under the weight of its own waste. For seventy-two years, the politics of the country has been dominated by two parties—the PPP and the PNC—each taking turns at the helm, each promising to clean up the mess left by the other, and each, in the end, adding their own unique stench to the pile. The result is a system so clogged with inefficiency, corruption, and indifference that the very air around it has grown foul.

The people, who have long been forced to hold their noses and endure, are now stepping back, coughing, and demanding fresh air. And who can blame them? The establishment, in its infinite wisdom, has managed to turn governance into a kind of public health hazard.

The roots of this discontent run deep. Since 1955, the electorate has been divided along racial lines, forced to choose between two parties that have come to represent not ideas or policies, but identities. The PPP and the PNC have become less about governing and more about maintaining their respective bases, like two rival gangs divvying up territory.

And while they have succeeded generally in holding on to their core supporters, they have failed the people of Guyana in almost every other way. The litany of woes recited by citizens when government officials deign to visit their communities is as long as it is damning: the need for birth certificates, water problems, housing crises, land disputes, passport nightmares, pension failures, school placement fiascos, the poor state of roads, drainage and irrigation problems, the high cost of living, poor prices being paid for rice, broken kokers and police inaction in the face of crime. The list goes on, a grim catalog of systemic failure.

Into this fetid swamp, step new faces, fresh voices, and alternative visions. These are not the polished politicians of old, with their rehearsed speeches and empty promises. They are, instead, individuals who seem to understand the daily struggles of the common man, who speak not in the lofty language of policy but in the gritty vernacular of lived experience.

Among them is Azruddin Mohammed, a man who, despite his own troubles with US sanctions, has managed to strike a chord with the people. He has shown a willingness to roll up his sleeves and wade into the muck, to identify with the difficulties of the small man and to offer tangible assistance. This approach is being called the AZMO effect: a phenomenon in which a figure, by virtue of empathy, becomes a magnet for the discontented and the disillusioned.

The crowds that gather to hear Azruddin speak are not simply there because of his personal appeal but also as a rebuke to the establishment, a sign that people are fed up with the status quo and desperate for change, no matter where it comes from.

The AZMO effect is not at all about the special talent of one man. It is about the failure of a system that has grown too dysfunctional. The establishment, with its bloated bureaucracy, has become so accustomed to its own inertia that it can no longer see the rot spreading beneath its feet. Its masters respond to criticism not with introspection or reform, but with slander and malice, as if the mere existence of dissent were a personal affront.

When the ruling party seeks to malign those who offer different views, they reveal not only their own pettiness but also their profound misunderstanding of the problem. The gravamen of the issue is not the individuals who dare to challenge them; it is the system itself, which has ceased to function for the people it is supposed to serve.

What makes the AZMO effect so potent is its simplicity. Azruddin Mohammed, and others like him, do not need to offer grand solutions or sweeping reforms. They need only to listen, to empathize, and to help.

In a system where the government has become synonymous with neglect, even small gestures of assistance can seem revolutionary. When Azruddin helps a family or provides aid to a club or community in need, he is doing what the government should have done all along. And in doing so, he exposes the establishment for what it is: a hollow shell, a broken machine, a clogged toilet that no amount of plunging seems to fix.

The rising tide of discontent in Guyana is not just a rejection of the PPP and the PNC; it is a rejection of the entire political class, a demand for something new and different. The people are tired of being told to wait, to be patient, to trust in a system that has consistently failed them. They are tired of the excuses, the delays, the empty promises. They are tired of the stench. And so, they are turning to new faces, to individuals who, for all their flaws, at least seem to understand their pain. The AZMO effect is a symptom of this broader shift, a sign that the people are no longer willing to settle for the status quo.

In the end, the establishment has only itself to blame. For decades, it has treated the people of Guyana as an afterthought, a nuisance to be managed rather than a constituency to be served. It has allowed the machinery of government to rust and decay, until it has become little more than a source of frustration and despair. And now, as the winds of change begin to blow, it finds itself unprepared, unable to respond to the growing demand for something better.

The AZMO effect is not just a challenge to the ruling party; it is a challenge to the entire system, a reminder that governance is not a privilege but a responsibility. And if the establishment cannot rise to meet that challenge, it will find itself swept away, like so much waste in a flooded latrine.

(The AZMO effect)

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

 

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• broken kokers, Peeping Tom, PNC, police inaction, politicians, PPP

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