OP-ED: Most dangerous presence in Guyana

By GHK Lall

We have so much, yet so many have so little.  I see human menaces of the worst kind, few exempted.

Guyanese currently live with some dangerous people, most destructive to their wellbeing.  Most Guyanese know that the most dangerous local presences are those that they fear the most, but, puzzlingly, still love.  Many citizens know that these Guyanese are troubled, very sinister, but they conceal their worries, bury their anxieties.  For these citizens are theirs (‘is wee own’): own group, possibly even blood type.  I also assert the same way of life adopted by some of them.  Many among the adoring and cowed in Guyana whisper among themselves about crookedness, untrustworthiness, and roguishness, but all they do is wink, nod, have a good laugh.  It is why the great dangers to citizens and country continue uninterrupted, flourish, expand with each new development: oil, gas, gold, governance.

The most dangerous Guyanese are not major drug lords, nor top money launderers, nor gold smugglers.  Nor Guyanese whose names are listed by the FBI, RCMP, Interpol.  The Embassies do know, however.  This is what makes the danger more comprehensive, alarming.  It is a terrible irony that the most dangerous persons in this country are recognized as chronic deceivers-old ones, new ones-but from whom truth, some level of integrity is still hoped for, believed to be possible in this topsy-turvy society.  The ones who have weaved many costly devastations in one area after another, with falsehoods following falsehoods, are worshipped.  Despite failures, all the frauds and farces, and all the deviousness that are traceable directly or indirectly to these pathological schemers, Guyanese are still the richest people in the world.  But they are impoverished of commonsense, reasoning, their willingness to call a spade a spade.  As much as they recognize almost completely what is going on, and the brutal realities for the Guyanese people, many persevere.  Is wee peeple.

A word is said and well-placed men who are the object of wrath shiver in nervous fear; another word is uttered, and the fawning are welcomed under the tent, with the honest kicked out the door.  It is the end for those in the latter group.  Only one kind of men and women find favor with the most dangerous presences in the room, in Guyana, in public forums: those who share the same trickiness, ruthlessness, coldness around foes, or others singled out for special attention.  Oldtimers and newcomers to the gang must manifest the same meanness, spitefulness, and vindictiveness to endure.  There is a premium in holding grudges, and making others pay dearly for daring to object, cross path, think independently.  They remind me of democracy.

I cast this arcing net.  We have our sensitive and pivotal institutions of the State, and they are bent to the will of the dangerous.  Get this done.  Get it done this way.  Get it done anyhow and by any means necessary.  Clearly, the rule of law, the protective planks of policies, standards, and regulations all fall victim to the dangerous presences that rule like those old-time despots over a docile and frightened people.  Those who don’t succumb to the sweep of power and pressure, wisely make themselves small.  I discern that countless many Guyanese are only too pleased to be silent, so as not to attract any undue attention, and there are those who prefer to be a blob, as if humanly nonexistent.  Danger can come from being in the wrong company, as judged by those calling the shots, those that answer to the dictates of the compelling dangerous shadows hanging over their own heads.  One gets furious when crossed, thwarted; another is abusive; insiders imitate closely just to survive.  This way or no way.  Citizens are afraid to step up and speak up when they are attacked and abused; they fear retaliation from the malicious and vicious presences in this country.

Just to be on the safe side, and not to gain a reputation for timidity or squeamishness, many do a self-test by asking some questions of themselves.  What pleases?  Would this course of action incur displeasure?  What was left wisely, deliberately left unsaid to protect oneself?  After some familiarity with a certain kind of thinking, a standard of behavior, there is anticipation of what would thrill the listeners, and result in solidifying an even more secure personal place.  Men and women would walk in a teeming snake pit to gain a pat on the head, a smile from the ones who hold their fate in hands.

When all of this is given careful consideration, and the weight that is due is applied, it is clear that much devastation has been inflicted on both the nation’s psyche, and the nationals coming under the spell of what are these clear and constant dangers to every citizen.  This is what thrives in Guyana, and everyone knows, has a strong sense of what is well-established, and multiplies daily.  The Germans had their supermen, the Japanese worshipped men as gods.  In Guyana, Guyanese are right there with their own most dangerous ones of all.  We all know them.  Check their speeches, their handiworks.  Check their warlike postures, and reexamine the records of those they place in positions of power.  These are the human tools trusted to do any dirty job, for it will get done.  No questions asked, no pushback, not a second of hesitation.

Considering some of the fearsome criminals that this country has under lock and key, they do not even begin to matchup with those that we have in places of authority and trust.  In the great betrayals heaped upon Guyanese, the biggest criminals in this society, the most dangerous presences, everyone considered, are those in suits and briefcases, and armed with microphones and computers.  Unless Guyanese quickly recognize their perils, they are in for a world of trouble, and of grievous harms.