One Guyana?
Which ONE …we ask??
Catch-phrasing and sloganeering are intended for arresting and quick- retentive effect. It’s a powerful influencer because its brevity makes it memorable and easily digestible.
And, emblazoning it on every surface makes it uniquely unforgettable.
‘Oneness’, at the national level, renders an inclusiveness of citizens, an inherent inter-connection of policies and their application to all the tenets and guideposts, that drive the ideology of the ‘Oneness’ concept.
There is resolution or, at the barest of minimums, trustworthy tries to trickle down the national economic success of our GDP to all citizens.
That’s just the contract of the Constitution , which guarantees the basic right to happiness, the right to work, with matching compensation, security of person and protection of the law.
But, plastering ‘One Guyana’ on every surface, also gives it a chance to backfire when it clashes with the intended message of the slogan.
‘Security of the Person’ …’Protection of the Law’ per the Constitution’s guarantee, hangs off the instrument like a non-functional 6th finger.
And all this questions the ‘ONE GUYANA’ mantra that has been hoisted above the One People One Nation One Destiny National Motto, which has remained stalled for decades of governance, particularly under the Party that has ruled the country for the longest, over the course of its existence.
It’s fair to think that the ruler with the longest tenure would be responsible for a climate that fosters varying levels of ‘Oneness’ in direct contradiction to the term’s meaning…is our thought.
The recent national tragedy over the death of Adrianna Younge, the ensuing police statements made and retracted and the removal and suspension of police personnel, offered some negative clarity on the execution of the ‘Security of Person’ tenet of the Constitution.
The arrests of members – predominantly of one demographic and political affiliation -fed in to the fundamentally corrosive belief of the degeneracy of these people of this race.
The concomitant bad behavior of others, predominantly not of the race of those arrested, went unheeded; even though there is a Racial Hostility Act backed up by the nation’s Cyber-Crimes Law,where hostilities of every stripe invoked every racial malice against the supporters of the deceased child.
And all this happened in the ‘One Guyana’, where no surface is safe from the slogan.
These photos represent the predominance of those arrested.
Then there’s this uniquely twisted pervert, whose cyber crime seems to have been insufficiently hostile or incensing enough to have been followed up by the cyber police.
It’s not that this Cyber arm is a sleeper unit …not when the heat of pursuit intensifies when commentary on national politics is considered hostile – even terrorism -when posted in the cybersphere.
It’s just that cyber- crime, per this law, does not include vulgar remarks with racist inferences, for the purpose of perverse arousal of those who salivate over sexual contemplations of under aged girls, who are Black…made by men who are not in the category of those predominantly arrested-seemingly.
Slapping One Guyana on every surface starts to look like defacement graffiti, vandalism by signage, when the overlaying wording is just a cover for a Oneness that is more One-Sided than centered.
Branding, it turns out, is more than just saying a thing is so. Co-opting terms and regurgitating them like nursery rhymes triggers recycling then slogan fatigue. Labels can always be verified against the product they represent.
And this all rolls in to Advertising which can be measured for veracity, very easily, by ascertaining product claims.
‘One Guyana’ may be an intent but is easily refuted if laws and policies to effect the intent are not for the benefit of all of society.
Going for the look on paper is not Oneness.
How many Guyanese get the opportunity to receive an 800 million contract for a job they are demonstrably unqualified to execute and as a front for another contractor?
Then there’s Am Cham Guyana, an extension of America’s Chamber of commerce and it’s business practices as an export of its diplomacy to Guyana.
What are the business qualifications for membership? The Chamber Commerce operates at the invitation and discretion of Guyana. Is every small business invited or given incentive to qualify…as a demonstration of ‘Oneness’?
Then there is Media.
Media Houses, Official Outlets, State and Private Media extend opinions that mirror those of the Ruling Party. The more extreme private voices make racial slurs. And, judging from their repetitions, without apprehension by the cyber police, theirs is the inverse relationship to Ruling Party approval of these demeaning posts.
This demonstrates a condoned behavior that likens apparent enforcement of law and policy in preferential manner.
And, this reflects the kind of ‘soft fascism’ we read about, where a government stamps out dissent or any form of objection without doing things like outright banning media, elections, or any form of assembly, as it targets a subset of its nationals as in a police state while ignoring the same deeds of others … seemingly.
And Soft Fascism is coupled with acts like subtle repression, when a 34 Seat Majority makes one sided State decisions without the required input of an elected Opposition which holds a 31 seat representation of the nation in its National Assembly.
Oneness, some say, is a not so covert expression of One Party State.
No democracy at all, say others, if only one side has input in national decision making.
So ‘ONE GUYANA’ has become an enigmatic emblazoning of Ruling Party messaging that has, apparently, not been received by a significant portion of the population as a genuine beckoning to national camaraderie and State benefits.
If nothing else, the detainees by the Police Force that seems particularly skilled at arresting a specific subset of the population, as it flounders to report civilian murders at the hands of Police or others, with the requisite honesty, efficiency and timeliness that should be the signature trait of any agency empowered to take lives, was underscored in the aftermath of public sentiment after the death of Adrianna.
Everytime we see another surface interrupted with the signage ONE GUYANA we wonder if it’s not time for the population to start asking WHICH ONE?