Dear Editor,
Amidst the cacophony of claims and counterclaims concerning taxes, should Guyanese be concerned? Should critical, vocal, resisting Guyanese fear? I say that they should.
Someone, a religious leader no less, shared that in the Burnham days, there was physical fear; the fear of intimidation and of actual brutality. I discern, I believe, that there is more than physical fear these days under the ruling PPP regime.
For starters, there is the real fear of rubber pellets and lead bullets, as has actually happened not too infrequently. There was/is the fear of the revenue weapon (read advertisement), as was once wielded. But there is also an omnipresent psychological fear of what this party can do, and would do; of how it refuses to be subjected to the dictates and constraints of laws. I think it is a legitimate fear given that the ruling party has demonstrated repeatedly a mean and vindictive streak as wide as the Essequibo River, and just as dangerous.
There is already the sordid history of aggressors (a blog); smear artists (state media); storm troopers and shock troops (state agents); and now the state bludgeon (taxes). That has been the history here in Guyana. But what about the unknown: the listening, the watching, the tracking, and especially as they pertain to perceived enemies on the ground, and of the party? What of a party in retreat and desperate, and itself fearful of the consequences of hovering justice? What will it not do? What will it not do, when it already has accumulated a shoddy history of seeking and attacking?
It is why I think that there should be a healthy fear of secret surveillance units, unaccountable to anyone, outside of the government and party apparatus. Where will they stop? Who is there to stop them, be the restraining force? Who is on the radar for attention and for what? Writing and protesting? Which remigrant’s declarations are secure? Whose conversations and movements are off-limits? We do not know what we do not know. What we do know is already troubling.
I have said before that this is a communist society in all but name. Secrecy abounds and intrigues and distrust are the features of the times; the commissars have an Iron Curtain mentality. Look at most of them closely, and it is revealing that most spent years in Warsaw Pact countries. It surely wasn’t all vodka and caviar, or academic pursuit. I submit dirty tricks and lots of them. Therefore, citizens beware! I return to the questions: Who is safe? What is sacred?
Thus far it would appear no one and nothing. This is very disturbing.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
