Pull Quote: ‘…consistently shifting truth is an indicator of a person lost in the wilderness, a person who is trying to find his/her way, a person not sure whether parking in this or that spot will deliver the expected goodies’ Pull Quote: ‘The shifters work hard every day to tell the Guyanese people that this Government accomplished nothing in 18 years; it is this line that they use that exposes their naivety in Guyanese politics whereby they tell themselves to believe that the Guyanese people will believe that the PPP/C Government did nothing for its people over the last 18 years’

PICTURE this hypothetical scenario: Suppose the PPP/C Administration offers some of the current self-important and supercilious letter writers and columnists substantial positions in government, where they would attract enormous limelight. Given this hypothetical situation, these people’s public pieces expectedly would carry a pro-PPP/C line.

That is, their tunes would be unabashedly PPP/C, because their changing context now would provide a different content. That is, prior to the PPP/C offers, their context was different with a different content; nonetheless, truth is non-negotiable with a changing context and a changing content   But this is not how it should be because truth is truth and it should not undergo literary surgery merely because of a shift in context, in this case, shift from the PPP/C to some other political party.

Indeed, this kind of character, by virtue of consistent shifting tendencies, would undermine the functioning of the party where that person now finds a parking spot. I should add, using Durkheim’s thinking, that these characters project weak and vacillating values and who constantly struggle to rein in their own aspirations. And when realization of these aspirations becomes problematic even within a new party, extreme anxiety steps in. Extreme anxiety is concomitant with truth-shifting.

And this is precisely the problem with the authenticity of some of these letter writers and columnists’ products, And just that we should know, consistently shifting truth is an indicator of a person lost in the wilderness, a person who is trying to find his/her way, a person not sure whether parking in this or that spot will deliver the expected goodies. This scenario really is the case of a person with unmet needs.

I believe that no person can experience even nominal happiness unless his needs are passably balanced to his means. French Sociologist, Durkheim argued that where a person’s needs need more than can be offered, there will be constant rasping. And we do see the daily rasping in the columns and letter-writing sections of the print media.

And just that we should know, genuine oppositional attacks are quite in order and the role of an authentic opposition is a requirement of democracy, where benchmarks of democracy determine authenticity; and, indeed, I am not referring to these kinds of people in the hypothetical scenario. Clearly, then, the truth shifters are inimical to democracy, not the authentic opposition And, of course, whoever the cap fits let them wear it.

In the quest of truth shifters pursuing their aspirations and acceptance in their new parking spot, these people go beyond the pale to spout out inaccuracies; moreover when this activity of spewing out factual errors becomes the norm in their print media pieces, then a crisis in truth emerges. The people of Guyana are not naive, and they are capable of identifying deceptions from truths.

Look, I have said many times that the Guyana Government is not faultless, and this Government, like so many Governments, does commit errors. And indeed, the public should know about these errors, and make no mistake about the fact that the Guyanese people are aware of these boo-boos. But the problem arises when these truth-shifting characters enter the scene to exaggerate ad nauseum the Government’s faux pas. They overgeneralize and use selective observations to peddle the factual errors; they indulge in cherry picking. Using this approach enables the truth shifters to camouflage and distort this Government’s accomplishments.
It is hard not to reach the conclusion that some of the Guyana letter writers and columnists’ distortions and camouflage are an exercise in opposing with malice. Quite recently, the Lanka Gazette (2010) in a similar context noted “Hence for democracy to survive, those who are elected to govern as well as those who are not able to govern, should both be democratic and as much as the Government should respect the rights of the Opposition, the Opposition too should respect the right of the Government to govern.
The present Opposition in Sri Lanka however, does not seem to understand this and in their view democracy bestow an unbridled right on the Opposition to oppose with malice everything that the Government does and further they seemed to think that all activities they indulge in, with a covetous eye on power, could be covered by the blanket of ‘democracy’.” The Lanka Gazette faults the opposition in Sri Lanka as opposing with malice. I suspect there may be aspects of the Guyana opposition behaving similarly; but today’s Perspective focuses on truth shifters who are not necessarily part of Guyana’s official opposition.
Back to the truth shifters on the Guyana print media scene. The shifters work hard every day to tell the Guyanese people that this Government accomplished nothing in 18 years; it is this line that they use that exposes their naivety in Guyanese politics whereby they tell themselves to believe that the Guyanese people will believe that the PPP/C Government did nothing for its people over the last 18 years. Anyone with a disease-free mind will see this Government’s successes in health, primary and secondary education, and housing. I will merely whet your appetite with a few from these areas, and these are a mere sample of this Government’s achievements.
Reconstruction of the health physical infrastructures – new hospitals at New Amsterdam, Georgetown, and Kamarang; high immunization rates among children now 95% compared to 65% in 1991; Infant Mortality Rate now 48 per 1,000 compared to 120 per 1,000 in 1991; maternal mortality rate now 11 per 1,000 compared to 34 per 1,000 in 1991; Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS currently with about 150 sites.
Universal primary school enrolment; 72% secondary school enrolment in comparison with 35% in 1991; 84 schools built, including the rehabilitation of many; 56% trained teachers now in comparison with 35% in 1991.; in excess of 75% passes at the CXC annually in comparison with less than 50% in 1991; housing boom – 100,000 house lots, 35,000 titles, 7% mortgage interest rate; 85% access to water today compared to 40% in 1992. Why do the shifters not blend their daily exaggerations with these verifiable governmental accomplishments? The answer has to do with their intent and action to oppose with malice. (Feedback: pmperspectives@aol.com themisirpost.wordpress.com)