By GHK Lall- Policy Forum Guyana (PFG) is the latest in a long list of those victimised in Guyana by the forces of darkness. The break-in and ransacking of PFG’s office is Guyana’s version of democracy. Speak up and there’s the downside. Incredibly, it came twice within the same number of days. The pictures of scattered documents stand as evidence. Random? Don’t think so.
A mystery about the identity of the true perpetrators, the intellectual authors? Not at all. Just look high. Look down Robb Street. Yesterday, it was an invasion. Tomorrow, it could be an explosion. Or, somewhere a fatal road collision. Whatever the means, it is democracy. It is of those who love to speak about who hates them, but are the original irreversible haters. It will be this way (ours). Or, not be any other way at all.
What was PFG’s most recent cause? Was it not about the selection of some Convenor that has some huge role in minerals? If I were the gentleman and scholar, whose name prompted the despicable, utterly condemnable, act of aggression and warning against PFG’s office, I would reject the appointment. Not in my name, brothers; not for my presence, my sponsors; not ever to be done, my defenders, and I stay silent. Or I remain attached. How else can I be? What else can be said about that dastardly attack that was intended to send a chill on more than free speech. It was to send a message.
Cross the path of those with all the power, the power to make anything happen, and be ready for whatever comes. It did. Thus, there were the first warnings. Not just to the people of PFG. But to any Guyanese who is so insensible as to step out of line, or come too close to the line. Like I said, there is a long list of those attacked with the first intention being to decimate the spirit, and another being to deter. Be informed. Be alerted. Beware. There is plenty more of such arms: small arms, arms of harms that reach far, arms held in reserve for the time being. Bravery and discretionary don’t go together. To be outspoken for a fair cause is to play with fire.
Victims? There are plenty. The latest was an outgoing Canadian diplomat who made a relevant recommendation. Denunciation was his reward. The EU spoke up about advantage that disadvantages others, and suddenly it went from friend to fiend. Remember Courtney Crum-Ewing, a lone citizen with a picket in front of high national offices. Look at how he was victimized and by whom. Want any eyewitness testimony, then speak with me. Predator. Shady, mystery business owner. Before the Mohameds, there was a Venezuelan traitor in the midst. Guess who?
And, of more recent vintage, Guyana’s only government official, and one so dishonest and dishonorable that he consorts with gold smugglers and others of that local ilk. Speak in this country, and it is the sword of Damocles unsheathed and used. Take a stand and write what is found offensive and it is the kiss of death. By a thousand cuts. He who is not ready for any degree of calumny, alongside official and political evils, had better join a monastery. Or partner with the lawbreakers, who call violating constitution and trampling upon the basic rights of men and women, their sacred duty, their interpretation of democracy’s ideals.
It is said that a pig put in a suit is still a pig at heart. No lipstick can dispel auras that blind, deafen, nauseate. All the money in the world hasn’t meant a stitch. There’re still raging insecurities that torture unless there’s total control. Must be a product of all those indoctrinations from the old Warsaw Pact countries. Who could have spoken more about democracy’s standards than Walther Ulbricht the maximum leader of the now gone-to-ashes, whisked to the winds, East Germany?
I wonder what the Americans resident in Guyana think of all this, amid their Thanksgiving festivities. Their prior counterparts held up Burnham for the sake of ideology. Today, another sick season of sicker citizens are being upheld by Americans again, only this time it is for something more tangible. It’s what could be run between the fingers, stashed away in small mountains in different vaults. Money. Naturally, there is something more substantial for the Yankees: expression and extension of its power, interests.
In sum, dare to rock the boat in today’s Guyana, and brace for a dumping overboard. Survive or sink. There’s PFG. It’s Guyana’s democracy, respect for law, standards, on display. Ask me.
