All I ever wanted to do was serve, but so much ingratitude

AUGUST 6, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

“From the day we arrive on the planet And blinking, step into the sun There’s more to be seen, than can ever be seen More to do, than can ever be done Some say eat or be eaten Some say live and let live But all are agreed as they join the stampede You should never take more than you give”

(Theme song from the musical, “The Lion King”) This column is not about Anil Nandlall but about psychology and politics. But it begins with a statement from him which forms the caption above.

In a recent press conference, Nandlall explained that he may leave politics, then went on to say his desire was to serve Guyana, but in politics he received so much ingratitude. This observation by Nandlall reminds me of what Lisaveta Ramotar, the daughter of then President, Donald Ramotar, told me many, many years ago. She said that her father served Guyana selflessly and deserves what has come his way.

Human tragedy stems from the inherent flaws of Homo sapiens. They say in life if you live by the sword you will die by the sword. Nandlall should not be derided for his statement that he wanted to serve his country. He was given an opportunity to serve. But Nandlall was not Ron Robinson who last week chalked up half a century of service to broadcasting in Guyana. Robinson and Nandlall gave to their country, but there is huge difference between these two Guyanese.

Robinson was not part of a power situation where his authority made him so powerful he held people’s fate in his hand. Robinson was never part of a government that decreed who should live, who should die, who should be given, who shall not receive. Nandlall was in that power situation. If Nandlall received ingratitude, then even with a modicum of intelligence (and Nandlall has far more than a modicum of intelligence) he should know, he dished out ingratitude to others who did not deserve to be treated that way.

It was the same with Lisaveta Ramotar. She said her father’s long activism justified his acquisition of power. But the Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, and Enrico Woolford served the good of Guyana and justifiably expected to receive radio licences that they applied for. They never got them. Dave Television operates in New Amsterdam, which is the capital of Berbice, yet its signals never reached Skeldon which is in Berbice, and its application for an extension of its signal was never approved. Could Woolford and others say that the denial of the radio licences was a terrible ingratitude? It was.

The deep, dangerous trouble with the psychology of maximum rulers is that they internalize one form of thinking for themselves and exclude the existence of other forms. They don’t even attempt to understand those other dimensions of psychology. This flaw in human existence was demonstrated with colossal vividness during the Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals. These people had murdered more than eight million civilians (not soldiers but innocent, unharmed civilians) yet their one-dimensional psychology was on show during their trial.

They dismissed the trial as a circus without proper legal procedures and said that the victors of war were simply using the power of the conqueror. But didn’t the Nazis kill ten million people without a proper trial? Didn’t the Nazis use the power of the mighty over the helpless? So why were they fighting for their lives at the trial. Why didn’t they all plead guilty? In fact not one war criminal at the Nuremberg trial entered a guilty plea

This column is not about Nandlall, but his statement tells us a lot about the psychology of authoritarian leaders and the politics of power under Presidents Jagdeo and Ramotar.

If having been armed with enormous state authority in an autocratic environment, a politician says he was disappointed at the ingratitude he received from his country, then think of how his victims felt. But here is where weird psychology comes in. When deposed dictators are asked why they did so much wrong to the citizenry, they never admit to their violations. The one-dimensional psychology prevents such an awareness of reality.

We end with a fascinating example of when weird psychology meets nasty politics. Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference days after the PPP lost the May 2015 elections, urged the press to investigate the wealth of former army head, Gary Best. But when the very press urged Jagdeo, when as President, to investigate the sudden wealth of many of his serving subordinates, Jagdeo in typical crass style responded w