In case your fear about the decay of our nation is not yet commensurate with rational reasons for fear, we need just look at a few things that got us here.
Guyana’s post-independence stagnation, an inheritance of calculated racial division and leaders whose ambitions were more oriented to self than public service, created an entity that sat comfortably in the Opposition for 23 years with no operational plan for implementation, should the political gods have smiled upon them.
Jagdeo,
acutely aware of his loss of diplomatic capital in allowing his Ministry of Home Affairs to double as a slaughter house with a Minister, doubling as a butcher, whom he then promoted to Ambassador after the US Dept. of State expressed “deep concern” with his Phantom Squad;
compounded with his appointment of Greene as Police Commissioner, in spite America’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) warning that Green was on the drug lords payroll (15-16) –
forced him into a handoff of leadership to selected Ramotar, backed up by Sam Hinds, the professional understudy, famous for drift and incoherence as he consistently rose past his capabilities to role play on demand… the grand political strategy of the PPP, Party famous more for blunder than competence.
It’s not that politics had been a platform of competing ideas promoted by patriotic politicians differing only in political ideology- not even in the pre-Independence days of the Political Affairs Committee.
But what we ended up with was a smash mouth style of politics, where the invective and pejorative took the place of campaigning on substance, which trained the electorate for the low expectation of carnival performance rather than governance.
And these social contours give cover to a politician who tends to excel where concrete thinking is nonexistent, where crimes against the nation’s treasury are continuously in progress, whose jagged edges from constant contact with criminality forge faux normalcy.
With the strain of politicians that governed immediately pre May 2015, the challenge –
in an arena besmirched by the absence of those finely attuned to the nuances of poise and presentation and a necessary fluency in the nation’s first language –
became that of finding a Presidential Candidate who commanded these attributes with an offhandedness that made them seem irrelevant.
The bonus here was that this pick came with knowledge of a military discipline that involved information collection and analysis, to preempt against moves by the enemy.
That David Granger’s tenure ended with a thud exposed many of the structural flaws in a Constitution , reformed and amended to threads , as it did in governing laws, most of which were adopted or amended and shaped by the Party of the current Government through a commission assembled under its current leader.
If ever there was merit in the mounted defense of reforms and amendments being routine tweaking adopted by every country, that lost all standing in the postelection climate of murder and mayhem that became a predictable corollary to the Pre-election priming for ‘civil war‘ against Afro Guyanese.
And, in keeping with the ‘civil war’, it would be disingenuous to claim mere coincidence for the swift delivery of the tribal savaging of Darren James and the Henry boys within days of Irfaan Ali’s ascension to office, as would be denying that the mass arrests of PPP political opponents and jailing them with bail set at prohibitive heights, was an unprecedented act of domestic terrorism.
This political catharsis, at least the fundamental parts, will not be complete without looking at ALL of the elements that brought this worst of times; this low point in our political history, to burden our nation.
The confluence of porous leadership that seemed not to have activated its surveillance and information -gathering techniques gave a Party Leader, whose international dossier files under ‘THUG’, the opportunity to select a criminal indicted on 19 crimes to run as head of State, abetted by a US government which saw us and our democracy as a mere collateral encounter, on the way to their deposing of Maduro and ‘securing Venezuela’, as a show of force to its eternal nemesis, Cuba.
Standing on principle always has a ring of nobleness to it.
But when Granger stood on principle through a ballot recount then abandoned on principle the same recount, we were left to contemplate if, in the calculation, principle was merely a necessary rather than sufficient factor.
It’s the convenient duality of these principles, these factors, that create an opening for predators like the US to manufacture, per situation, its own definitions for human rights and democracy, in order dispute that they have not violated their own principles.
Ask Jimmy Carter.
He was almost public enemy number one for calling them out on their Human Rights hypocrisy during George W. Bush’s water boarding, at Guantanamo.
This time it’s Guyana.
America’s asset is now Guyana’s most prolific vulgarian, Jagdeo, owner of the patent on how to spiral the country into acrimony and sporadic anarchy.
Conveniently embracing diplomatic trash is known to be an enduring American tradition…especially when they are “more compatible with U.S. interests“.
Remember when Condoleezza Rice called political pirate, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, “a good friend” and the world blew a gasket?
Think Condi wasn’t preserving a relationship with a despot sitting on the third largest oil producing reserves in Africa?
And a little dictator love goes a long way.
For all the human rights violations and democracy norms he continues to trash, Teodoro is in his 5th decade of dictatorship…with America’s oil purchase generously supporting his GDP as the defenders of democracy “tut tut” at the genocide and looting of public funds that mark his over lording.
Madam Lynch’s mission to Guyana, contemplating its timing and its result, should not be taken as an arbitrary assignment.
Not at all.
And this guy delivered. He picked a head of state indicted on 19 felony charges to ride as his shot gun.
Like minded thugs…befitting of a Madam.
And, Madam Lynch couldn’t find a ‘noisier democracy‘
With the installation of the current Administration, Guyana has been reverted to 1999 when Jagdeo was appointed President and is on course to suffer the decay that is inherent with the corrupt and villainous warts and blemishes that barnacle his character.
The US and the other defenders of Democracy have begun a clumsy pirouette to consecrate a pair of devils, at the expense of the collapse of our nation.
Pretending some moral mooring, as the savaging of three black men remain the capstone of their Administration, Jagdeo and Irfaan have now taken to speaking reverently about “justice and human rights”
Nothing, wrote George Orwell, is gained from teaching a parrot a new word.
For sure, George.
For, shortly after their force fed learning by rote to recite “human rights and justice” on cue, the Administration refused to fund a real investigation into the racial slaughter.
Justice sits on hold. Just like old times.
We weren’t surprised though.
Nothing to do with snakes never forgetting how to slither and strike- though the metaphor is exponentially apt.
Just the fact that the human rights atrocities of these folks remain archived for reference of the decay that began under Jagdeo and is destined to continue under him- as testament to the only strength he has ever brought to public office.
And let’s not under- represent his propensity for corruption, lest we deprive him of one of his ‘Sixes’.
On the 28th of December, the Opposition brought to the attention of the nation, the fact that Jagdeo’s Administration was seeking a 17.4 billion spending purse to take them through the 3 days left in 2020.
Line item spending purpose, you ask? Generally Accepted Accounting Principles is anathema to Government under this crew.
So just chalk it up to the usually bulky sundry expenses these sums tend to cover…like an extra generator for the devil’s workshop in Pradoville.
Madam Lynch, like God in Genesis, looked upon her work and saw that it was good.
Since then, good has had a political shift and President Elect Biden has suggested a global summit to renew faith in Democracy, post Trump.
Not sure how that message will resonate, with messengers like the Madam on deployment.
That said, and though we must strive to remain part of the global community, we’ve got to remember that ‘ eternal vigilance is the price of liberty’.
Loosely quoted or not, that’s what we’ll pledge to do over here, for sacrificing candor to political delicacy is just another step in the direction of national decay.
