Liberty and living free

May 26, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – Free at last! Free at last! We are finally free at last! Unfortunately, it didn’t last, made much of a difference to a great many Guyanese. Not to many in May 1966, not to many other Guyanese on this May 26, 2026.

What does a 10-year-old know, can fathom, of such grand pronouncements? Not yet a teenager, but absorbing the echoes of one of history’s grand fighters for freedom, Dr. Martin Luther King. The profound depths of liberty, then newly plumbed. This is the life. From Sir Francis Drake to Forbes Burnham. They both became famous for helping themselves to lavish dollops of glory. From Sir John Hawkins to Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who was more in the mold of MLK, but had to taste the salt of his tears during his long wait in the wilderness. From those foundations came this prize called Independence. The great right to determine national destiny. It has been a topsy-turvy sea rippled by damaging turbulence.

In time, Burnham was out. Jagan came into his time. It is a carousel that hasn’t paused for breath, never quite coming to a stop. Reminder comes once every five years. We complain to outsiders. We call on outsiders to come. Come help us make sense of Independence and democracy. Willing hands and wise minds have helped. Yet, Guyana is still cemented to the past. An independent nation with the impotency of the colonised. How to interpret that contradiction? How to appreciate those who suck-up to the White man, stoop beneath his pitying paternalising gaze, but still claim to be free men? If this is Independence, then imprisonment can’t be much worse, may even be preferred.

Guyanese have all the riches in the world, a small national family. Yet many live within the walls of poverty. Independence must represent elevation, the conviction that free men and free women are masters of their own house. Hence, there should be instant rejection of gift-bearers whose sole objective is to re-enslave, so they can usurp what belongs to the future, the children of now and tomorrow. Where is the man that is a man to the core of his soul, who castrates himself and is proud to become a servile eunuch in the chambers of exploiters? Exploiters who call themselves friends and honest investment partners. Let me share my thinking.

Independence gives me the right to look at any man in the eye and tell him he is a damn fool. Because he is. Just look high, then look all across this dreary, dismal land. Where is courage, whither honor? Guyanese are living a false existence. Amid the delirious celebrations, somebody has to point out the naked condition of this country, its grand pretenses. Guyana is a country living a credit card existence. Patrimony makes Guyana a good credit. The White Man grab the liquid gold. The Oriental man, the Arabian man, and more of White heritage grab the insatiably greedy leaders of Guyana by the neck, and stuff them full of credit. Free men yoking themselves and nation and people to indebtedness. The people will pay. And pay. Then pay some more.

One group hauls away the riches. Another set attaches liens on the riches still remaining. The present squandered and lost. The future mortgaged in the 21st century version of the new slave trade. Rich resources handed over. Beggar’s dole is the reward. A people stripped first, then tied to a short leash. From Independence to incarceration (and it didn’t take long). From one instrument signed in May, 1966 to another executed in October 2016, to give it all back. Brittania may not rule like before in Guyana. But the American Eagle certainly flies overhead, casts a long, ominous pall.

All this is celebrated in a frenzy of forced gaiety. Amid droves of hungry people, there is ecstasy. No wonder the White Man sensed an opening, and seized Guyana by the ball bearings. Guyana’s political princes can make all the speeches they want. Ordinary Guyanese watch as they kneel and kiss the ring. And when backs are turned in the faces of leaders, they kiss the behinds that aren’t moving from their noses.

I take stock. From the hungry and despairing to the emasculated kowtowing and creeping, is that independence? Is that Independence in a country blessed with mountains of metallic assets and lakes of liquid riches? Is this Independence when the people’s elected crawl on their belly like lowly serpents lacking teeth and sting. And those orbs that represent masculinity. National sovereignty and sanctity of contract can never be more than blood enemies. The former is of liberty, tried and enjoyed. The latter is of treachery that’s first lived, the subversive’s silver that condemns man or woman to a fate worse than death. From a colony to liberty, then that priceless liberty surrendered for a penny. The pyrrhic victory of power on a short chain, and Guyana now a penal colony that amputates the mind. Listen to those in charge. Billions of barrels in hand, and they stand: the biggest buffoons to be found anywhere. They play the clown and wear an uneasy crown. If this is Independence, others are free to have it.

(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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• Dr. Martin Luther King, GHK Lall, liberty, living free

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