The polygraph and the insane power Guyanese accept
On a television programme with me on Channel 6 to discuss Jagdeo’s radio licence madness, Mr. Lincoln Lewis made the point that too many citizens supported the PPP Government only to find out later that they, themselves were victims. The list is long and they courted their own disaster because they waited too long to speak out. Dictatorship inevitably becomes a devouring monster if you do not clip its wings at birth. The example I use all the time to drive this lesson home is then PPP member, attorney Sadie Amin. I had a conversation one evening at the downstairs restaurant of the trade union, NAACIE, with Ms Amin. The conversation naturally revolved around the PPP’s domineering attitude at UG since Ms. Amin was a member at the time of the UG Council. Ms. Amin’s inflexible position is that she is a member of the PPP, is loyal to her party and is morally compelled to support everything the party does. I took objection to her use of the word, “everything” but she said that that is the way she feels as a party member. About a year later, I met with Amin on Croal Street in the vicinity of the magistrates’ courts. During our conversation she was compellingly frank and honest. She left the PPP and its women’s arm Women Progressive Organization because she could not accept what her party did to her husband. He was overlooked for the second highest position at GuyOil, even though he met all the requirements. Her argument was pellucid – the PPP did an unacceptable wrong to her husband and she could no longer continue in the PPP (don’t know if she has since rejoined). This was the very human being a year earlier who told me she had to vote for James Rose as the Vice Chancellor of UG, because that was what her party wanted. But she rejected what her party wanted when she became a victim. Civilization will never advance towards freedom and progress if we cannot see that the irrationality and non-logic we accept in the world will one day head in our direction and devour us. Mr. Lewis was right. This entire country, with the exception of this columnist – and yes let me beat my drum – did not protest when the Jagdeo regime gave lie detector tests to nine CANU officers including the head, and dismissed all of them after claiming that they all failed. The lie detector test can be reduced to scientific nonsense at times. My wife would fail a thousand polygraphs on matters in which she is totally innocent given her psychological make-up. She is a very quiet person with tendencies to be introverted. Nervousness can lead to answers that are misleading. On the other hand, a street-wise culprit like me can pass a million lie detector tests even though I may be guilty as sin. When you grow up in rough times and learnt a lot from the streets, your psychology is a hardened one. For this reason, polygraphs are not reliable scientific processes. Had this country adopted a no-nonsense approach to the first set of sacking (at CANU) after the polygraph was (to my mind, illegally) introduced, maybe we could have saved the twenty-one employees of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA). You play with dictatorship you get burnt. You give dictatorship an inch, it takes the whole nine yards. Guyanese stayed silent over the CANU dismissals. The Government got its way now the floodgates are open. Yesterday it was the GEA. Today the polygraph morbidity will move to another section of the public sector until it comes your way. What makes any Guyanese feel that after this denunciation of the lie detector scandal at the GEA, it will not be repeated? The people of this country are not learning the lessons of life. We let the insanity that occurred at the GEA go unprotected and more manifestations of insane power will visit this nation. Dictatorship will only stop if and when it is confronted, and you don’t have to do it with violence. The great Mahatma Gandhi did not use force against the British Raj. But it was Gandhi who said that “non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.” Where do we go from here with the lie detector madness at GEA? The head of GAWU, Komal Chand, felt that it was too much to take. He denounced the GEA depravity. As a trade unionist, he knows you just don’t dismiss workers because they failed a polygraph. And Chand was angrier when he heard about the asinine questions that were asked. So what’s next?
