I read of “politically instigated” coming from President Ali, and shake my head. How could the president sink to that level, and so quickly, almost automatically? “Politically instigated” was heard in the context of the furious protests in Tuschen and elsewhere that could be sourced to the killing of 11-year-old Adrianna Younge. Though not as incendiary as the president’s earlier contemptuous categorization of protests for access to information as “politically motivated”, it seems that Excellency Ali goes on a binge with these utterings, in his need to twist the knife. In aiming to have the last say, the one that is swallowed wholesale in Guyana, I think that the president is treading on dangerous ground. He is toying with a sweet precedent that leaves Guyana even more polarized, Guyanese very sour. If no one else thinks so, I think so. His advisers should try to caution him, steer him towards a different path.
For what is reference to “politically instigated” if not a slickly packaged derogation? What is “politically instigated” in the snuffing out of the life of an 11-year-old child, if not a racial slur, a messy racial branding? The president would have the nation believe that the protests now have some tint and taint of what is “politically instigated.” So, if I take him at face value, then where does that lead? Politically instigated insinuates that what is happening in the villages and streets is against the PPP, is not of PPP origins. So, what is left, to what conclusions are Guyanese pushed? Come to think of it, there is only one. Politically instigated points to the hand of the PNC. So, it is first a cheap political slur, no matter how relevant. Then, it is a vile racial slur, for who is the PNC largely made up of, its longtime backers? I have no choice but to repeat what I think, what I laid on the public table before. Anyone who descends to the level of classifying the protests over a dead child, a murdered child, a child whose horrible death was first attempted to be covered up, as “politically instigated” just delivered a cheap shot.
“Politically instigated” is swift in concoction, swifter in its introduction, and swiftest in its power to fan a wildfire. It is too easy in the delivery; too sinister in its broad implications. People with rank and power, with some knowledge and standing, should think before they talk. Even if the protests are “politically instigated”, those in charge should be more circumspect, more disciplined in their haste to put down those with burning anger tormenting their existence. Those two combustible words just make matters worse. They cleave a sharply dividing line across the face of Guyana. When members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) could react to the circumstances before them as they did, then it cannot be only the under siege and under the microscope GPF that is responsible.
Decisions that were made earlier come back to haunt. Arrangements and rearrangements that took place in the last several years in the GPF have whittled it down to this disgraceful state. Who has stood by solemnly, even pushed ahead with decisions that created precedents in the GPF, and then took a step back to admire their handiwork? Even while the biggest open secret and joke in Guyana was that the institution was collapsing under its own weight, and the heavy shadow of politics destroying its fabric. There is a line that starts with the kidnapping of Ms. Adrianna Younge (now dead) and dumped like a piece of garbage in a previously empty pool, that continues with the first coverup by the GPF, and flared at high temperature into the consciousness of Guyana. The flames of anger do not go dark as if by some automatic timer. Or because President Ali graced the occasion of the young lady’s death with his holy presence.
Unless President Ali gets to a place that absorbs how angry and disgusted and frustrated Guyanese are, then he might as well be Rip van Winkle living in some slumberland. And unless President Ali gets rid of that comfy old shoe that is labeled “politically instigated” and “politically motivated” then what he amounts to is one of the poorest leaders in this tensest of times in this ruptured Republic. What the president is doing, maybe not so unwittingly, is to divide Guyanese into blocs, i.e., who is on this side (pure and lacking in political instigation) and those on that other side (best described and maligned as “politically instigated”). I see black and white, darkness and light, and evil and good.
A president’s first and only job in circumstances such as Tuschen and Linden is to cool fires. “Politically instigated” inflames the situation. People with bona fide grievances are riled up, for in their time of trial and agony, they are insulted by those claiming to be peacemakers. Guyana is too narrow and confined a political entity for the president to be that cavalier with “politically instigated.” I think that I can recognize a racial slur when I hear one. When President Ali goes down his “politically instigated” road, protestors who had tasted ashes before, now have to tolerate bitterness.
