Guyana Observer News

GEORGE ORWELL MUSTA LOOKED INTO THE FUTURE AND SEEN GUYANA

Monday, 02 March 2009

George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” which was published in the United Kingdom in 1945, and “Nineteen Eighty Four” which was published in 1949, predicted what many nations might become in the future, in terms of the structure and stratification of their human societies. And while one can point at this or that nation today and remark on its resemblance to the social developments fictionalized in either of those two insightful works, it is difficult to find many that boldly and blatantly embody the negatives of both fictionalized societies. That is, unless one travels to the top of the South American Continent and examines what the only English speaking nation on that continent is rapidly becoming. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana, a nation torn asunder by ethnic divisions, violent crimes including extra judicial and vigilante style mass murders, and Teflon drug barons with traceable links to the very centers of power, has become a current day replica of the fictionalized examples Orwell presented to the world. The controlling and pervasive establishmentarian concepts and elements of “Big Brother”, “Group Think”, “Equal and Equaller”, Napoleonistic Security Puppies, that Orwell introduced to enhance word picture imaging of his characters, have all become the norm in the exercise of political administrative power in Guyana today. And as long as “Boxer” continues to be a loyal supporter who diligently does what he is supposed to at the ballot box every four or five years, the coercive strangulation of truth, freedom and justice becomes a routine chore for the appropriate Ministry in Orwell’s modern day Oceania.

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm allegory, domestic quadrupeds and bipeds join together and ran off the human biped who had been dictatorially presiding over their existence. Contrary to the expectations of most of the newly equal inhabitants of the transformed society however, the authoritative replacements for their previous ruler did not behave like the egalitarians they professed to be while they all were under the command of the farmer and plotting his removal. The Berkshire boar Napoleon and his fellow porcine characters assumed absolute power for themselves, intimidated, threatened and ran off all dissenters, and proceeded to totter around upright on their hind legs in emulation of the very locomotive gait they had heretofore condemned in their predecessor.

The current ruling party in Guyana, while in opposition, regularly and vociferously condemned their opponents for monopolizing the State Owned Media, for nepotism, for living extravagantly while the masses struggled to eke out an existence on a daily basis. Fast forward seventeen years after that party got its hands on political power and the state media is still being monopolized, nepotism and political favoritism has been taken to heights never seen before in the history of Guyana, and party big wigs and associates retire each evening to opulent housing developments like Pradoville. There is one law for those who are considered to be dissenters, and another for those who inhabit the inner circle of power, or are deemed to be appendages to that power. The children of those who are not traditional supporters of the ruling party are summarily picked up by Police, beaten, harassed, and processed like ordinary criminals. The children of those who are of the inner circle are able to kill or maim others while carelessly operating their expensive cars and vehicles, and escape criminal sanctions through the medium of payoff settlements or other political interventionist actions. And like the threat of Mr. Jones return was used by the propagandist Squealer to silence those who questioned the sameo sameo, the “Boxers” in our 83000 square miles modern day “Animal Farm” are warned that a return to power of the previous political administration would herald the release of power automatic rifles into the hands of violent criminals.

George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty Four” fictionalized a dystopian regime of Party Paramountcy where simple thoughts can become punishable crimes, and people are legally and socially ostracized for interacting with those “the state does not like or approve of”. Winston Smith who worked in the propaganda Ministry responsible for the revision of history and the formulation of reality, secretly rebelled against the doctrine of the party, and entered into a relationship outlawed by the Party. He is outed by party spies, and after a period of incarceration and torturous reconditioning he gets with the program and regrets the interlude of disaffection with the party’s order. The process of interrogation and reconditioning is under the supervision of the Ministry of Love, and involves beatings by thought Police, electric shocks, and eventual executions. The party’s slogan is “War is Peace”, “Freedom is Slavery”, and “Ignorance is Strength”. Anyone who disagreed with that or any of the other controlling aspects of the human thought process was determined to be insane and eligible for sanction and punishment. Sounds familiar, ask George Bacchus or Ronald Waddell.

Throughout its period in the opposition the party in power in Guyana accused the Guyana Police Force of being hand maidens to the political dictates of the then ruling party. They claimed that ranks that associated with the opposition were ostracized. That the police were amenable to the dictates of the ruling party rather than to the laws they had sworn to enforce. That Policemen who did not carry out political orders were routinely transferred to isolated hinterland locations as punishment for their disobedience. Maybe like the two police officers who were transferred last year to Kamarang and some other place because of their reluctance to incite an altercation during a PNC protest rally. Or maybe like the official reaction to Ex Commissioner of Police Felix after he issued arrest bulletins for fugitive felon and Narcotics Trafficker Roger Khan. Imagine a Policewoman, let’s call her Jackie, escorts a critic of the policies of the ruling party to a farewell event held in honor of a colleague, and political orders come down the pipeline instructing that she be paraded before a Police Commander in Brickdam for that act. She has done no wrong. The constitution of Guyana allows her the freedom of law abiding socialization with people of her choice. Clearly there is an elaborate spy network established by the regime in this modern day Oceania on the South American Continent, in every public service entity where a majority of a certain segment of the population is employed. And if you belong to that segment and associate with ethnic others who are not supplicants or milk drinkers your movements are reported. Jasmine, a fictional name, faced similar reprisals for merely carrying out a court order. The Court ordered that the vehicle of a critic of the ruling party to be returned to him after his attendance at a hearing. Jasmine complied with the Court order and received a notice that disciplinary action would be taken against her for such compliance. All across Guyana there are similar experiences of people in public and civil service occupational arenas. They are literally living in a police state where their social and professional activities are being scrutinized to ensure that it conforms with the dictates of the political order rather than the constitution or the laws of Guyana.

Guyana has become a reservoir of the dysfunctional, controlling and oppressive political systems fictionalized by George Orwell in “Animal farm” and “Nineteen Eighty Four”. The Pigs who posed as egalitarian revolutionaries while they were in opposition, have become worse than the farmer they succeeded into power. The absence of stiffed back and visionary political opposition has allowed free reign for vindictive and coercive actions against those who dissent or do not walk in obsequious lock step with the dictates of narrow minded politics. “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty Four” now defines the experiences of large segments of the Guyanese population caught up in the politics of absolute Power and absolute corruption of that power

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