“Mo fyaah,” “slow fyaah,” and 5% of your soul
The Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
December 10, 2006
A former leading member of the now defunct Reform movement of the PNC told me that nothing could have convinced the late President and leader of the PNC, Desmond Hoyte that violent confrontation with the ruling PPP could have been avoided. He said Hoyte deeply believed that only fiery protest could have brought out compromise and concession in the PPP. Hoyte was right of course.
We all saw it. Each time the “fyaah” started, the beatings took place, and the wrecking occurred, the PNC and PPP went to the bargaining table. All Guyanese know that what we now call the dialogue came about because of “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah.” It is unfortunate that a committed search for understanding between the main contenders had to be sought for within the context of violence. But even more depressing was the unpleasant truth that the ruling party was only drawn to the table when “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah” were in progress in downtown Georgetown.
The flames of “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah” were abruptly extinguished after Hoyte died. Had Hoyte remained in the leadership of the PNC, there would have been persistent anger. As I was told by that Reform person, Hoyte had traveled beyond rationality and had reached the point where he became oblivious to the tragic implications of “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah.” Hoyte was ensconced in his final years in the ideology of unrelenting anti-PPP hatred.
This is a long story that would fill a book and cannot be outlined in a newspaper article. Desmond Hoyte, in the last lap of his life, became an intensely bitter person. It is a phase of Guyanese history which causes me to feel mentally burdened when I write about it. The Desmond Hoyte story is a complicated and sad one. I am truly emotionally and intellectually bewildered on how to unravel much less understand it.
Briefly, I think Hoyte died an unhappy person because he felt that he atoned for the sins he participated in under the rule of the PNC, but his intense loyalty and sacrifice for Guyana when he became president were contemptuously and vulgarly dismissed by the PPP. But more importantly, he believed his energies in attempting to bring back ethics and morality in Guyanese political culture were erased by the return to tribalism, incestuousness and corruption of the PPP.
In as much as I disagree with the burning effects of “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah,” in as much as I disagreed with the politics of the final stage of Hoyte's life, I believe he architectured a return to normal, clean, acceptable political behaviour in political administration. If the PPP and Cheddi Jagan didn't unleash their primitive instincts after 1992, and instead had built on the return to clean politics and de-politicised policy-making that Hoyte embarked on, Guyana would have been on the road to the reclamation of the attractive place it was after self-ruled in the forties. Look where we are today after all the efforts of Hoyte. Political leaders of the ruling party are barefaced enough to sit as permanent secretaries in the bureaucracy, something that does not exist in any democratic county anywhere in the world.
In as much as I reject the shape and manifestations of the present politics of Tacuma Ogunseye, I understand the emotional tsunami that lives inside his soul. It strongly resembles that of Desmond Hoyte. I was once close to Ogunseye as youths involved in the anti-dictatorship struggle in the WPA. I know what he contributed. I know what he wanted for Guyana. The KN columnist, Peeping Tom, once wrote that I still have a soft spot for Ogunseye. Well, I don't really know.
The psychic intimacy and soulful bond between many WPA strugglers have gone. For me they have. Many WPA persons like Bonita Bone, Rupert Roopnarine and Ogunseye have completely undone all their historical roles. As for Peeping Tom's assertion that there is still something inside of me for Ogunseye, I don't think so. He crossed the line after 1992 and embraced a style of politics that has destroyed Guyana and will completely demolish the people of this land if it continues.
Our struggle for a valued country has only one road - the multi-racial one. Deep in my psyche, I will never want to be physically and mentally close to any belief-system whose core values are based on ethnic considerations. There is nothing negative about the Guyanese people. Our problem was and is the tribalist mentality and power obsession of the founders of the PPP and PNC that they have passed on to subsequent leaders in their respective parties.
But let's return to “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah.” Are they dead? Or can they easily be resurrected? It all depends on how soon the ruling party abandons its five percent stratagem that it forcefully uses in its relation with those that work with the State. “Mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah” we have left behind since the death of Desmond Hoyte but have we entered a new beginning? The perpetual imposition of 5% increase on employees within the State sector is a threat to social tranquility for two reasons. First, it is gasoline thrown on the fire of conspiracy. There are extremist groups out there looking for a reason to restart “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah.” The continued authoritarian imposition of 5% will provide them with an invincible argument.
Secondly, we have gone beyond “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah” since Hoyte's death and the expectation is there that good governance and the sprit of compromise will now take us into the future. We have made a start. Look how quiet and serene the 2006 elections have been. No one received even a scratch. Peace prevailed. Look what we got after the calm? More of the 5% ideology of the ruling party and the President. Surely, if this country is going to permanently douse the flames of “mo fyaah” and “slow fyaah,” then the working people of this country deserve a modern, realistic and decent salary increase. Life is almost unbearable for them. Let them have money, let them have a future. The alternative is Shakespeare's witches in Macbeth who love to play with “fyaah.”