No…your Eyewitness won’t ask from where we’ve come, but rather, “Where are we going?” If you need to be reminded about the former question, then something’s really wrong with you! Those who’ve “forgotten” the Mingo Manoeuvre with the stained bedsheet (how in the world did a GECOM bedsheet get stained?); the riots in West Berbice; the riot at Mon Repos, and all the huffing and puffing in-between, are suffering from some real big cognitive dissonance!!
So, we’ll move on to what might lie ahead. But hold it!! Isn’t the future, to a large extent, determined by what came before?? Like the speed of the ball towards the boundary being determined by the force with which it was hit before?? Just can’t get away from the past, can we?? One fella who should know said, “The past isn’t dead; it ain’t even past”!! So OK…tell you what: your Eyewitness won’t DWELL on the past, but just ALLUDE to it, to discern any possible causative factors!!
So, let’s cut to the chase and start with what we all know runs everything in Guyana – politics. And this one’s easy – we’re in for a long, very hot summer!! And yes, dear reader, we do have “summer” in Guyana. Haven’t you noticed all the “summer sales” and “summer holidays” and “summer clothes”?? The Emancipation Day celebrations have fuelled the stage for the Opposition supporters’ angst of being robbed by the planters for four hundred years, and its “payback time”!
But hold it!! Isn’t that supposed to be “reparations time” against the folks who extracted all their labour free? The Dutch and the Brits?? And we’ve launched a movement to get those reparations?? Surely, we’ve all read Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” and applied it to Guyana – since we were directly plundered even before Africa!? “Underdeveloped” means not only did they not “develop” us, but they actually left us worse off compared to countries that weren’t colonised! Think Japan. And then whatever they left was nationalised by Burnham and destroyed??
Anyhow, that won’t cut any ice with the Opposition fire-stokers, who’re working overtime to give us a repeat performance of Desmond Hoyte’s “slow fyaah; mo fyaah” circa 2000. As your Eyewitness is pecking away at this piece, the grand Opposition rally at Parade Ground – and specifically “Burnham’s Court in Georgetown – is scheduled this afternoon. And we can expect that all the demagoguery spouted on Emancipation Day will be ratcheted up to incendiary levels.
Parade Ground – we’ve been reminded – was the scene of African Guyanese being executed and heads stuck on pikes. And this will be analogised to the PPP’s actions in the present. Hyperbole is the stock-in-trade of rabble-rousers!!
And then will come the “morning after”!! A city of clerks…?
…the US speaks
Two years ago, the US played a great role – along with the EU, Commonwealth, Caricom, OAS, etc – in assuring there was “fair play” after the PNC tried to rig the elections once again!! The PNC myrmidons claim that the Yanks “installed” the PPP, which is therefore an “illegal, illegitimate cabal” – like the PNC of 1964-1992, your Eyewitness guesses!! They’re ironically in raptures over the messages coming out during Pres Ali and his team’s meetings with members of the US Administration last week in Washington. They’re stretching!!
Secty of State Anthony Blinken tweeted, “Guyana remains a key partner as we work to bolster food and energy security, promote shared prosperity and inclusive growth, strengthen transparency, and safeguard the environment”. VP Kamala Harris noted that she “looked forward to continuing her collaboration with President Ali in promoting inclusive democracy, economic development, and security for all Guyanese…”
“Inclusive democracy” is the common term, and American practice is the standard!!
So, where’s the PPP going amiss?
…still truculent
Opposition Leader Norton’s under pressure to keep his street cred – against extremists who feel they “put him there” because of his old rep.
Trapped by the past…even though he knows the times have changed!! He should speak to Corbin.
