Accidents in a banana republic

Racism and patronage must be very strong instincts, perhaps the strongest in Homo sapiens. Of course, understanding patronage is commonsensical. One human will tolerate and support the moral and criminal nastiness of another if that human benefits handsomely from his benefactor.
This is where the parental mystery comes in. A terribly corrupt or murderous father will get support from his children in whom he has invested a lot of money. So your dad sent you to the best university in the world, put a lot of shares and stocks in your name to last for generations to come, paid for your marital home and your car. You will turn a blind eye to the people he killed.
This story of children supporting their terrible parents is as old as the universe itself. Here in Guyana, we were treated to the spectacle in the Chronicle where Nadira Jagan said that she cannot help hating the people who have criticized her mother. The younger Jagan used a strong word, “hate.”
The question is, would the younger Jagan concede that her mother was hardly an angel who spent over sixty years as one of the most powerful figures in the history of Guyana and whose power had caused her to hurt many of her detractors?
The evidence that Mrs. Janet Jagan and Forbes Burnham out of narrow-minded and vindictive politics damaged the lives of many persons is overwhelming. It is downright dishonest and indecent to deny it in the face of colossal evidence. And do I have evidence against both Mrs. Jagan and Forbes Burnham?
Well, well! Do you want to see it? I don’t think so. I know you know I have been around a long time to have gathered enough incontrovertible evidence, some of which involves me. Yes me!
Why not do what Nadira Jagan and Hitler’s secretary did – come out and honestly admit that you admire the person and would prefer not to deal with their negative side. But to deny their negative side really tells the world what a flawed person you are. If patronage is understandable, is racism the same thing? The answer is no.
In patronage, your personal (note the adjective) future was secured by your benefactor. You are comfortable with life because your benefactor provided you with the essentials and luxuries of life. Racism is a different kind of fish altogether.
If the political party of an ethnic community other than the group to which you belong is in charge of your country and its bosses go in the market and take whatever they want, go into a police station and free whoever they want, covet any type of state land they want, then you have every right to fight against such power depravities.
It is equally wrong when your party gets into power and does the same. No philosophy, no instinct can justify that. No ruling politician should be allowed to go into a police station and free an accused or stop a police from doing his/her duty. If you protested that when your people were not in power, moral decency compels you to stop your party from doing the same thing.
I lived all my life in Guyana, and I saw persons like Rickey Singh, journalist, Hubert Williams, and so many others harassed President Burnham for bad things that in today’s Guyana look like absolutely insignificant inconsequentialities when you compare the sins of PPP leaders.
If what Kellawan Lall has been accused of doing (crashing into a cyclist and hitting a teenager with his gun) was done by one of Burnham’s Ministers, all hell would have broken loose. I know about accidents. I have accused President Ramotar’s son, Alexei, of being in the wrong when my nephew was struck by Ramotar’s SUV.
Now we have Ashni Singh.
Mr. Singh did not wait around to provide a breathalyzer test. To date he still has not given his side of the story; to date he has not been charged even though both independent dailies and television news including government-aligned media clearly stated that he was the offending party.
Singh will keep his job as Lall did, as the President’s son did, as Lumumba did with his dolphins, as Nirmal Rekha did with the GRA investigation, as Jagdeo did with his refusal to legally validate his marriage document, as Robeson Benn did with his NCN invasion, as the chief legal man in the government did a few years back with his exclamation that he “is a maan dat does do illegal thing,” and as all their other colleagues have been doing since 1992.