Guyana has several divides. There is the now historical divide of race and politics; it is external and apparent. Then, there is another divide evidenced through what is said versus what is thought; this is at the individual level and camouflaged. Today, I spend a moment looking at a few areas where a mastery of political correctness prevails amidst convictions different and clandestine at the core.
Say the word torture, and Guyanese from all walks become clamouring and jostling embodiments of UN and Geneva standards. Listen to them: “it’s heinous” “it’s unforgivable” et seq and ad infinitum. I believe that the protestations are too loud, too slick, and very opportunistic, particularly given some of the sources. Behind the laments reside a mindset of, “it works” and “use it to get what is needed, but just don’t get caught.” More relevantly, leave room for deniability. In this way, all and sundry can leap on the bandwagon against torture, while deep down there is concern that a heavy duty tool has been exposed, blunted, and temporarily retired. As Native Americans might have remarked, “Guyanese speak with forked tongue.”
Mention killings of an extra-judicial nature and the hypocritical trend continues. The sanctimonious congregate in brigades and speak in euphemisms concerning “crime fighting” and “crime-fighting success.” No one comes out openly in support of extra-judicial executions, but concealed in the layers of justification are beliefs of, “one less lowlife to deal with” or “justice is served” or “they got what they gave and deserved in return.”
Staying with killings, and taking the same tack, but this time the focus is on the massacres of Lusignan and Bartica, to name a couple. The story is the same with practised mourners galore and disgust over national tragedies, wanton loss of life, and unspeakable abomination. I submit that behind the carefully constructed façade of words, there are feelings of, “this will show them” and “force like this is easy to bring about” and “something has to give.”
The essence of all of this is that the killings (executions, really) have become ingrained – and acceptable – across the spectrum of sponsorship, and supporters. Accordingly, prepared and canned phrases are rolled out to insult the dead further. While within, there is secret glee over another body blow dealt to the enemy, and to render it malleable. The fork of the tongue has multiple prongs.
These represent but a few places where Guyanese exhibit this distance between words and positions. It is expected of political players; after all, their raison d’etre is to mislead, if not mystify. But it is illuminating how fluently followers have grasped the rudiments of this art and amplified it into a national hypocrisy and fraud. It is one where everyone parrots the patently artificial to disguise a more soulful identification with actions that sow distrust and destruction.
So platitudes are concocted that align with the tenor of the times, and dictates of circumstances. There is a view that history is the phantoms spun from rhetoric. It seems that Guyanese have become experts in every element of this view. I believe that we have become sated with the ready conveniences of the soothing to present others with what they want to hear, even as we mask that which debilitates internally, and at the core.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
