…of barbaric reversion
In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, the protagonist Kurtz emerges from the jungle where he’d been trying to impart “civilisation” to the natives. So shocked at what he’d become, he could only mumble, “The horror!! The horror!!” As a Polish refugee in 19th Century Britain, Conrad was a keen observer of the striving of “outsiders” to join the world of civilised manners and mores. He couldn’t miss the sometimes-grotesque efforts of some who imitated the forms, but missed the substance of what it took to rise above their innate barbarism.
As your Eyewitness observes the PNC’s trampling on our Constitution – which was supposed to establish the rules of civilised governance in our neck of the former empire on which the sun never set – all he can do is mumble, “The horror!! The horror!!” Since December 21, 2018, he’s witnessed the mask of civilised behaviour slowly corroding from Granger and his myrmidons’ faces to see at last what was always there: the mark of the depraved drive for power at any cost. And it’s made even uglier by their insistence that those who oppose their descent into depravity are “vulgarians”!!
One of the institutions the British passed on to us to imbibe the rules of civilised behaviour is the game of cricket. We learnt on the playing fields of our schools that the rules of cricket are sacrosanct and the decisions of the umpire, who enforces those rules, aren’t to be questioned. It’s just “not cricket!” For instance, the rule of being “out” if you inadvertently back into your stumps may not be “fair”, but that’s the rule and you walk back to the pavilion. We in the West Indies became noted for walking in all sorts of circumstances even when the umpire hadn’t noticed our error. WE KNEW, and that’s what mattered for us to keep our honour.
Running a country is serious business, but ultimately it comes back to the morality that our leaders were supposed to have imbibed on the cricket fields and in their homes to “do the right thing” and “walk” when the rules say so. But this is where the PNC under Burnham started the precedent of bending and breaking the rules of the game of running the country just to stay in power. He made a mockery of the foundational rule that it’s the people who vote their government in and out of office, by rigging elections. He made us a Banana Republic.
And that’s the morality his protégé David Granger is living by. The umpire of the Constitution – the Judiciary – determined his government ended on September 18.
But he refuses to walk. The horror!! The horror!!
…of the Police State
Even before the PNC under Granger acceded to office with the help of the AFC, your Eyewitness raised concerns about the number of ex-Disciplined Forces officers who’d been recruited into the PNC/APNU apparatus. And lo and behold, when those ex-officers were all placed into strategic positions in every Government department and Ministry, the alarm bells went off even louder.
And it’s not, as some apologists complained, that military officers weren’t educated and well trained for jobs. The question was, what were they educated and trained for!! First of all, not about democracy: they’re trained to do whatever the fella above them says. Remember those officers who killed civilians who were simply trying to ensure ballot boxes were secure?? Granger complimented those officers: just following orders, man!! As a matter of fact, Granger was the young officer Burnham picked to indoctrinate the Officer Corps of the Disciplined Forces into his ideology of “Burnhamism”.
From that, Granger sees the armed forces as a “modernising force” that will lead Guyana “for their own good”.
In the Police State!
…of intimidation
What kind of mind would think businessmen would plot to have politicians embarrass Granger? The “trained” military, security mind of former Head of the Disciplined Forces, Gary Best would!!
To a hammer, everything’s a nail!
