Impostor is a good word when circumstances fit. Fixer, operator, conniver, hustler all have their place, depending on the individual and how good he or she is in pulling the wool over the eyes of the trusting, while taking them for a costly ride. But there is one word that stands above the others. Conman. Con-woman. When their minds and their mouths sync to produce outputs that are rip-offs on the unsuspecting (or those willing to be taken in), then that’s a con job from a seasoned con laid before the eyes. And ears, too.
A conman doesn’t stutter; a speech impediment is a fatal occupational hazard, giveaway. A conman is smooth as honey wrapped in velvet painted in soft, alluring lights. A conman could be the biggest of them all in his chosen field, be it the commercial, the spiritual, the civil, or the political. Or an illiterate wearing intellectual garb. Indeed, such fellows reach high and low in the political realm, the world over. Guyana doesn’t have the distinction of claiming an exception.
Ever listen to a businessperson make a pitch for a new product, or a new idea that requires some new cash? A product that is nonexistent, one that is based on an idea that is a phantom. The only aspect of that business pitch that is solid and is real is the cash. The gullible gives up some of it, and they may not know, but they just said goodbye to that stash. Gone and not coming back. Ever hear a preacher in full flow, with steam coming out of his ears, nostrils, and eyelashes? The donation challenge is coming up next, with a larger army with collection plates circulating among the faithful. A con man or con woman invoking heaven and holy names while already calculating the bulk and weight of the collection plates. If no other Guyanese has seen them, heard them, or came close to them, I have. In Guyana, in America. In Asia, in Europe, and in Latin America. Bypassing Africa spared me a repeat of such sordid encounters.
Ever watch to a civil society, or nonprofit, visionary making the rounds? It is a treat. Power to the people. More for the suffering. Democracy is under siege. And then he or she makes that one honest move in their lives. They come out into the open and crossover. To the side of the oppressors and brutalizers. Gotta join them if can’t beat them. There will be opportunities to do better from the inside, when close to the throne of the power operators, action. The latter is the newest con job. Some just cannot help themselves. What’s in the blood is in the blood, just cannot be eradicated. Here is a challenge for my fellow citizens. Ever had the rare, good fortune of coming across a reformed con man or con woman? Point proven, case rested.
Like most things in life, few are the absolutes that maintain that rigid, impregnable monopoly on a standard, a way of life. There are the exceptions: quiet, stout of heart, devoted to clean hands, no matter how rich or how poor. They can be found in the business realm, the civic arena, the spiritual pastures. My heartbreak is that the genuine articles are so few, far apart. I pray that there will be additions to that lonely battalion, which could do with some urgent reinforcements. Now I have saved the best for the backend of this presentation.
What about conmen and con women in the political spaces, high and low? Go as high as pleases. Are they no such creatures, are they so few as to be negligible? And are they so low on the totem pole as to be insignificant? One more question to stir the mind: what is the stock-in-trade of politicians, the world over? In one word: WORDS. The mass of poor Guyanese has heard so many big, beautiful words that they actually believe that they aren’t paupers and suffering from manifold hungers anymore. It’s an indication, powerful confirmation, of the skill of the political conmen and con women in Guyana today. Words from pols that con the people in complacency, actually believing that this time, this one time, they will emerge a winner, better, stronger. It takes some outrageous and unprecedented conning to get destitute Guyanese into that frame of mind. They hang onto every word from political conmen, as if living depends on it. It is so.
The political cons know it, ruthlessly exploit it. Promises. Standards. Ethos. Guyanese as world-beaters. Simultaneously, they clean-out the national coffers. Hustlers and hypocrites hailed as heroes. Hollow drums pretending at glittering diamonds. Fiends masquerading as friends. Exploiters claiming to be long-lost fathers. Comrades and countrymen or con artists? One or many? Guyanese can judge.
