For too long, the government has played this game; for too long, it has taken the Guyanese people for fools and for a ride; and for too long corruption has been much more than a little, and has demanded urgent remediation efforts. It is time for the people to recognize the Pandora’s Box of grim realities let loose. Even if corruption uprooting and elimination are seriously intended – which is really doubted – the hour is past. It is just too late, and the latest games of political people add only the risible to the tragic.
In today’s Guyana, corruption is far past the venal dabbling and exchanges surrounding birth certificates, telephone lines, and speeding tickets. That is chickenfeed stuff and involves petty people and bottom feeders of no consequence. Rather, corruption has grown through osmosis to the hitherto alien world of containers; trafficking in objects whether living or inanimate; influence peddling; and racketeering. It is a pervasive force in an environment characterized by big time deals, big time dollars, and big business. The latter means one thing only in Guyana, for there is nothing bigger than the business embodied in the Siamese twins of narcotics and money laundering. They are powerful twins whose bloodlines flowed into politics through the paramilitary for preservation of power at a very critical time. It is a conjuncture that now cripples, but it is one that reached its acme a few years back, and from where it is immovable.
To begin with, the government was always wary of the loyalties and resilience of the security infrastructure; of opposition reach and influence within the force; of opposition agitation in the streets; and of the perils posed by a convergence of these concerns. The partial realization of these fears during precarious times prompted a coordination of outlook and objectives under an all-purpose umbrella of national security, which necessitated the fusion of loyal internal forces with external parties to overcome the grave dangers then existing. It was a fusion replete with the sinister, as incorporated in phantom squads, unidentified crime-fighters, private paramilitaries, and police assets; but all merged into a proxy counterinsurgency legion.
This legion was of incalculable value to the government through presence, willingness, and intervention; and operational through manpower, firepower, and horsepower to the decided advantage of the government and the severe detriment of its foes. Whatever the ostensible reason: patriotic, constitutional, political, or commercial, the die had been cast. It created the indissolubility of a perpetual quid pro quo, inclusive of political dotage, and the continuously felonious.
Now, debilitating political debts have accrued in a ledger smeared with encrustations of blood, and reflective of joint stock associations with criminal syndicates. More simply, there is no free lunch, and the piper must be paid. Hence all the games surrounding unused Master Plans, and presidential word plays about drug dens, drug houses, and drug blocs. Cumulatively, they realize nothing of significance, which is the intention all along for there are other pivotal considerations.
Although it is years later, the dust from that maelstrom has never settled, and the government finds itself trapped in more than a dilemma. It grapples with a multiple pronged pitchfork, which threatens to impale if not handled with the utmost care. First, any disowning and discarding, even clandestinely, of allies could promptly result in their realignment with political foes, and a restructuring of the governance status quo. Second, any attempts at reduction or removal of these same embedded forces could see replacement czars operating unchecked, or in the camp of adversaries. Stated differently, foreign controllers will not permit the loss of impunity and what has become a productive pipeline and conduit. The combination of environment, borders, politics, and institutions and their proven weaknesses cannot be easily replicated, and would be contested vigorously and resourcefully. It goes without saying, that the capacity for unbridled violence and upheaval would be unlimited; in reality, an incubus in waiting.
For its part, the government is well aware of the Faustian bargain struck, and the terrible bind in which it finds itself. It is why special purpose professionals evince intellectual depravity, and suppress ethical compunction, to dismiss claims pointing to the stranglehold of corruption tentacles in Guyanese life; even the most miniscule of admissions would embarrass the government, and would darken the glossy picture painted, such as a planned resort now exposed. In addition, the government knows that the men behind the scenes – and reported to be operating with impunity – are diligent in guarding their own interests, and at detecting shifts in the political winds. This necessitates the continuous employment of professional indignation, denial, and minimalism to camouflage the existing local axis of evil; circumstances demand political allegiance even in the face of public opprobrium and peril. Anything else would be tantamount to political suicide.
In view of the stakes, the fateful steps of acknowledgement and “a little” are, by themselves, indicative of nothing. For all intents and purposes, this amounts to a political actuarial calculation that equates to: “throw a bone to keep quiet and get off from the back.” Only no one is biting this time, for all realize that the bone is made of rubber and needs soaping.
So, yes, Minister, it is timely to acknowledge finally the existence of corruption. And yes, Minister, the nation has heard before from high and low, and through legislation and rhetoric about combating corruption and other scourges. But no, Minister, there is no belief that intentions and efforts will be different this time. It cannot be; it will not be. This is the hole that the government dug for itself, and one in which it is now a captive participant in a dangerous game of its own choosing.
