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Public intellectuals and violent gunmen
Let me dwell on the evasiveness of Ravi Dev by first making two assertions. One is that I would never deny any Guyanese who live outside, their right to live in this country and speak on behalf of it. George Bernard Shaw once wrote that “Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.”

I believe people like Dev have every right to speak as a Guyanese as I do. But was Dev thinking in Freudian terms of his friends in the US when he correctly quoted James Boswell’s famous saying on the same subject: “Patriotism is the last refugee of a scoundrel”?

Did Dev have in mind those who turned their backs on the country of their birth like Dr. Randy Persaud and his brother, Walter, David Dabydeen, Rickey Singh, Vishnu Bisram and countless others who live and work in classy environments in post-modern countries and use ultra-modern washroom facilities at their work place while in Guyana, Food for the Poor has to build toilet facilities in the school yard for both staff and students, a description applicable to a large amount of schools in Guyana?

Yet with all the leisure, pleasure and income they enjoy in their futuristic societies that they have now called home, they vulgarly, blindly and unapologetically endorse and support elected dictatorship in Guyana.

Would these people come to Guyana and endure blackout while engaged in their professional work? Would they pay for water they cannot get? If these people are patriots then Boswell was right.

These are the people, not Ravi Dev, for whom I have immense resentment. It is morally obligatory for those who ooze the sentiments expressed by George Bernard Shaw to come home and to do something for the country they so love and for the government they also love to eulogize.

The second affirmation is that while I do not deny Dev his right to proclaim the Indian quintessence of his Guyanese blood, I believe that Indian identity must at all times avoid jingoism, chauvinism and cultural and political hegemony. Dev’s new turn is worrying apart from being dangerous.

All in all, for a man who is schooled in the books of philosophy, it is tragic that Ravi Dev is flirting with embracement of the PPP. But worse than that, he chose to attack someone like me who fought for the re-creation of the circumstances that would allow Dev to return home and for the PPP to be free once more so it can win racially determined national elections.

It came as no surprise why Dev has chosen me and why the heat is on Sharma.

I remember how Burnham felt about Rodney. Rodney was presumptuous to fight against Burnham. But most of all, he was a betrayer of the flock he came from. Dev’s new journey though surprising should never have been ruled out.

He always had a Freudian (he claims he knows little of Freud. Maybe he can ask Parsram Thakur to lend him a few books, hopefully written by Freud himself; he is another supporter of the flock the PPP comes from) suspicion of WPA people.

But that is another subject to be dealt with in the future as Dev takes to the PPP platform. You bet once I have my fingers and there is a keyboard, Dev will hear from me when he mounts that bandwagon.

Now for the evasiveness of Ravi Dev. Once I continue this exchange with Dev, he is going to look for extraneous thoughts of mine and he is going to correspond on those irrelevant motifs.

But I have news for Dev. Each time he replies, I am going to ask him persistent questions as I normally do with his newly won friends at Freedom House. Remember Clement Rohee, Ravi? He went on an exchange with me but would not answer my question to explain the imbroglio with his American visa withdrawal.

I will continue to ask Dev to expand on my theory of elected dictatorship in Guyana. There are four forms of state degeneracy under the Jagdeo presidency that were not pronounced or visible under Burnham. I would go so far and say that they did not exist under Burnham.

It is not germane to the debate to adumbrate the characteristics of dictatorship as spelt out by the theorist, Carl Friedrich. His framework was applied to totalitarian dictatorships of the first half of 20th century Europe.

His outline has to be modified to take into account the nature of the post-colonial state. Added to this is the fact that there are types of state decay in the 21st century which constitute dictatorial politics that Friedrich did not know about when he wrote his treatise.

For example, he could not know about the use of narcotics money to enhance the power base of a regime. This is what separates Italy from the rest of mainstream Europe. This is what the EU is worried about in Bulgaria.

My second question is that on three occasions Dev has expressed his belief that my writings may not be in the interest of social stability when one takes into consideration that violent gunmen are at the gates.

I will wait to read the pieces that Dev has selected and which have socially deleterious material. But it is my belief that Mr. Dev has uttered more statements that are damaging to the social harmony of this country than I have.

One sincerely hopes that Dev indicates what those essays are. But more than this, he can help me if he identifies them. I can learn from my mistakes.

The final question, I suspect like number two, I will never receive a statement from Dev. Given his new niche at Freedom House or New Garden Street, he would be extremely careful. I am asking Dev for the third time if he can point to polemics and speeches, like some of the columns of Frederick Kissoon, from state actors like the PM, the President, Ministers, PPP mandarins that could be as harmful to the peace just as he finds some of my writings are.

In other words, does Dev buy the nonsensical aridity that in Guyana only the critics of the PPP say mischievous things?

I conclude with Dev’s observation of my new house. I think he has to ask Donald Ramotar how I got it. It was Ramotar who made the announcement at the death anniversary of Dr. Jagan in Berbice that businessmen bought it for me. Then he repeated the allegation in a letter in this newspaper. I could have sued him. But in doing so there would have been a touch of uneasiness. He is partly right. I did ask friends for help.

I hope Dev enjoys the company his newly won friends. I am going to the march for Sharma tomorrow. Will Ravi Dev be there?