By GHK Lall- I am laboring to sift through the madness of Monday, April 28 (4/28), which happened to be a private anniversary. It’s a daunting task, but is attempted in nine (9) parts. I keep the parts short and simple, let them speak for themselves. Hopefully make all Guyanese think. Prompt all foreigners who are here as investors, partners, helpers, even passing strangers to weigh Guyana and what it is, where that leaves its 800,000 inhabitants. The eight brief essays are 1) inequity; 2) anger; 3) security; 4) the Chinese; 5) African Guyanese; 6) Indian Guyanese; 7) politics; 8) trust; and 9) nationhood. I start with inequity.
Many factors will be identified as prime contributors to the buildups that exploded in the 4/28 mayhem. One factor looms brightest for me -INEQUITY. The perceptions of it in all of its forms. The convictions inspired by immediate circumstances. And then, the realities serve as pillars for both perceptions and convictions.
When a reasonable, peaceable citizen believes irreversibly that he or she is being victimized, then taken further advantage of by extensive deceptions, and insulted by arrogance, then only so much that could be absorbed, lived with passively. Flashpoints merge into breaking point. In 2025, on Guyana’s 4/28, there was that first glimmer of what simmers so restlessly beneath the surface calm. It’s deceptive, as Monday drilled into every Guyanese. Because the central consideration, the one question, distills thus: for how long will a brother, a neighbor, watch docilely and resignedly, while inequity overwhelms the distribution of his inheritance?
Caution: There will be no list of failures re the sharing of the big, tall national pie. The disparities, plus the accompanying haughtiness, are known, old, and fatigued. They all involved public choices delivered into the public domain that have great public impact. Degrading impact. Thus, this sharing is compressed, for Guyanese know them well. I have warned often. When there is nothing, there may be hesitation; where there is plenty, the inevitable explosion occurs.
As I interpret, inequity is the firstborn of injustice, one nurtures the other, until the seams start to split. Guyana’s 4/28 furnished the first indicator of to what and to where inequity drives men. Whether justified or not, it is to madness. Madness has one descendant: mayhem aka monstrosities.
I do not know, need help, in understanding, how anyone-professor or peasant, intellectual or imbecile, invested or indifferent-could conclude otherwise. Or could be pleased with what all along promised a conflagration. On 4/28, Guyanese saw conflagrations set by citizens that were cries against the daily crises with which they live, the enveloping catastrophes they fear. Many may dismiss what I label cries as crimes, and there were those also. Let that be said, and most unambiguously. When a mob is on the rampage, cries and crimes become indistinguishable.
Guyanese have been repeatedly presented with numbers and words. But, the best of stats, the weightiest of tables and charts, and the sweetest of narratives do not stand one chance, not one, to sway anyone otherwise. Nobody is listening nor reading nor willing to grasp, what may be of quantity, but lacks the substances that make a difference. Or the spread that touches every Guyanese fairly and satisfactorily. I committed to: short and simple. Now I close Part 1.
To this point, I pinpointed the citizen guided by discipline’s hand, reasoning’s strength. But what about the unreasonable, meaning those citizens not given to deep thinking nor circumspection’s restraint? Those who are available and exploitable, because they owe, or they need. Now, the last word: sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
Up next, Part 2 —Anger.
