Dear Editor,
It was the majestic Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke, among illustrious others, who moaned in stirring song “Nobody knows the trouble I have seen”. With respect to those musical towers, they haven’t seen, don’t know the troubles that we have brewing for this already troubled-riddled Guyana. Thus, I do duty and deliver the discomforting to Guyanese, so all are forewarned. We have political trouble, no restatement required. Though unholy territory – we have an incurable racial problem; it is taboo, a national slur, but must be said. The plaster is that elections generate the worst racial impulses in us, then we are a racial and thoroughly racist society in that those seasons never end. So, we have a political cum racial problem, which is the start.
There was always a class divide, the superior elitism amidst egalitarianism. Oil makes that more distinctive with savagely distinguishing features. Economists, sociologists, and political scientists compress this pronounced Guyanese environment into haves and have nots. Though academic jargon, it is real and hurts. I am not limiting myself to the much-maligned private sector, among the haves; instead, I extend my embrace to encircle local political royalty, professional aristocracy, and Guyanese delighted with their foreign friends, really their accepted masters. I recall the Maharajahs of India feathering nests during the British slavery. I am around midpoint, and a quick recap helps track our troubles. We have political problems, racial problems, and class problems. There are a couple more, when examined panoramically and prophetically.
The AFC initially signaled separation from the PNC, that eternal pariah of Guyana’s politics. Like our oil deal, that perverse status is one-sided, viz., there is no PPP in this tango of two where pariah status is concerned, only the dreadful PNC. The AFC apparently sees itself as icebreaker, game changer, and difference-maker. Somebody listening. So, the AFC is/was thinking of linking up with others. Then not. It is illuminating on how this local 360-degree works. A central plank in the AFC broke ranks with the PPP, and now possibly heading full circle (backwards). How is that for political synergy, mathematical probability, and people integrity! Descartes and Archimedes would be proud; all the cows come back to attractive nest (talk about mangled metaphors).
This could mean a one-party state. Because the same small parties that the AFC envision linking up with, were and are nothing but PPP clones operating under a cloud of promising rhetoric. They are all now apparatchiks of the Freedom House machinery, glue, and grease: money and men. At least, they have the good sense to keep silent and their heads down. As seen, this means that the PPP gets to achieve its lifelong vision, the total control to which its leaders are addicted.
I come to the PNC, and I hear Eddie Hooper: ‘Where are your friends now?’ Clearly, they have all gone away. I think the party’s choices are narrow: become a full-out Black party. Discard political correctness baggage. Articulate a muscular, militant nationalism. There, I said it. What choice does it have, unless it follows the AFC, reverse the Burnham rupture from the PPP, and return to the original fold? Sometimes, I think it did. How about that for inclusive governance, and better yet ‘One Guyana?’ Now that would immensely please my fellow Americans, brings the desired peace and stability, but without domino effect, containment, CIA, AFL-CIO, TUC, and RC (mafia) hands. Sometimes I am too smart for my own good. Think about that PNC scenario, its options, and muddle ahead from there. I am not done.
The Middle Easterners are coming. They have ploughshares, as in knowhow, how to do downstream, and how to make bricks out of mud. Now, this is a PPP problem with whispers intensifying. I’ll be delicate: division of spirits. If that’s too cute, try this: religion. The fundamentalists inside the PPP were already screaming, and now this influx of a certain kind of foreigners, with a particular kind of history. Please get my drift; the new man is flexing muscles, coming to appreciate power, which is why I say careful with those leadership laboratory experiments (remember, Janet). What goes around (duh fuh duh…). Before I miss this one, Americans are upset with Red Chinese being so dominant here, now their troubles just doubled with the Arabian invasion, compliments of the leader. That’s showing who is boss, baby. Imagine OPEC+ (meaning Russia) ruling the roost here. After all the Americans have done, their troubles here multiply. Like the song said, ‘you’ve got your troubles, I’ve got mine’.
I see trouble, and I’m not Marian Anderson. This is what my reading leaves me, where it leads me. Sure, it’s unscientific; merely a combination of goat guts, snake scales, and frog feet.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
