Dear Editor,
Guyana’s newly-found oil wealth seems to be giving the world another kind of oil curse. Besides the ‘Dutch Disease’ and ‘resource course’, seems we can now add ‘Petro delusions’.
This new curse is a direct effect of three outcomes of our country’s 2020 elections. There was the failed attempted rigging, the need to get us to forget that ugly incident, and the PNC’s loss of control of the oil money.
The control of the oil money meant staying in office, even if by rigging. According to the failed riggers, Guyana has suddenly become rich, and the money is in the hands of the evil PPPC Government. They would have shared it with everyone (as with the US$18M signing bonus). But according to them, PPPC are using it only to make their “friends, family, and favourites” rich. They don’t see the Government as managing the earnings for the country’s development.
These ‘Petro delusions’ have sparked a raging race-hate campaign by the Opposition coalition partners. They claim to be fighting for the freedom of “black” Guyanese at roadside meetings and on social media, but the newly self-appointed freedom fighters are really fighting for the right to rig elections and control our country’s oil wealth. They want the freedom to break the law, preach racism, and obstruct the development of our country.
The PNC, after eventually getting power in 2015, used the years in office trying to fix themselves permanently in power, only to lose it in 2020. It made them realise that rigging is now difficult. And so started the desperate delusional campaign to discredit the elections and the duly elected Government.
The campaign uses delusions of Governmental racism against “black” Guyanese. They see corruption with the Government having vast oil riches sharing with “family, friends, and favourites”.
Also, stemming from the failed rigging attempt and loss of control of oil funds is the delusion that dead and migrated people voted; that the PPPC rigged the elections to cheat them out of office.
They also claimed that the Americans installed the Government; that the President and Government are illegal. So, for them, the President is the “installed president”, and the Government is “the installed regime”. Based on the PNC and partners’ narrative, the role of the electorate is non-existent. The only acceptable outcome of the 2020 elections should be the rigged results concocted by the then-CEO.
The Opposition’s delusions are driven and made more intense by hate for the PPPC and its supporters. So, they feed their supporters the narrative that the elected Government is racist, undemocratic, corrupt, lawless, and an evil dictatorship. The PPPC Government oppresses Afro-Guyanese; those who join the PPP are bribed to do so. They say PPP pays Afro-Guyanese members to keep quiet about the Government’s evil acts, or they are controlled by fear of victimization, so they can’t speak out against the evils they experience, as imagined by the Opposition partners.
The racist campaign spurred by the 2020 loss sees the PNC claiming sections of the population as “our people”. And the PPPC has no right to go into “our areas” to bribe “our people” to support them. The thinking is that their fellow Afro-Guyanese can’t think for themselves and make intelligent choices. So, they insult Afro-Guyanese who support or work for the Government as being house slaves. They say that the Afro members of the PPPC are “black ornaments” in that party. Those who call out their racism are deemed slave catchers. They denigrate and insult anyone who dares to express a view that contradicts their delusions.
New racist terms such as ‘jagabats’, ‘trench crappos’, and other demeaning words not normal in decent, democratic societies are used to describe Government officials. Seems they pride themselves on building their image by using the most demeaning and insulting terms to describe opponents to attract supporters.
Also, there is masking the racism with terms like “non-PPP supporters”, “non-African supporters” and “poor Indo-Guyanese”.
The failed rigging attempt and loss of control of the oil money continue to feed the delusions of the PNC and its partners. They seem intent on not allowing democracy to work in Guyana. For them, the normal Government functions are the excesses of a dictatorial regime. The plan seems designed to fool and lead Guyana into another pre-1992 dictatorship. They have abandoned any Opposition partnership in Guyana’s development. Instead, they focus on finding and highlighting negatives. That will help them to deceive the Guyanese people that the Government is an evil dictatorship intent on inflicting suffering.
The Opposition and partners are consumed by their Petro-delusions. They use undignified outbursts on social media platforms both from home and abroad. Their outbursts only show their bitterness from the failed rigging attempt and loss of control of the country’s oil money.
Guyanese are intelligent, and the divisive hate campaign can only result in the Opposition’s slide into irrelevance. Decent, intelligent Guyanese will not be led back by their delusions of the past, and prevent benefits from our country’s development. The time may be right for the emergence of a new progressive opposition party; one that sees its role as a partner for Guyana’s development in or out of office.
Sincerely,
Art Foster
