Sad state of affairs
by Sharief Khan
GEORGETOWN -- The shame is too much for many people, here and abroad. Former Army Colonel Cecil `Pluto' Martindale, now retired and in Canada, was among the many outraged that the national flag, the Golden Arrowhead, was last week draped on the coffin of a slain man long hunted by the security forces as the country's most dangerous wanted bandit. As the news of the outrage sank in, Colonel Martindale's e-mail from Toronto was simple, to the point but silently thunderous: "I am sorry. Even if it were at all possible, I can no longer see my coffin/casket being draped with the Guyana flag. Sad state of affairs." Former Guyana detective R.A Dickson, from New York wrote: "Just when I was beginning to feel that Guyana had hit rock bottom and that the only way we could go was up, my beloved land has hit a new all time low. "...Are we so desperate for heroes that we scrape the bottom of the cesspool?" Some, however, could not have been bothered, referring to the draping of the flag on that coffin as "the so-called desecration..." and seeming to suggest strangely that the gesture was somehow deserving. In some countries they don't mess around with national symbols like the flag; they take such matters so seriously that people are locked up for messing around with the national flag. The flag of a country is by far the symbol by which it is most easily recognised and that's why, for example, Guyanese cricket fans walk and wave it around almost everywhere Guyanese are in matches overseas. Unfurling the Golden Arrowhead and lustily twirling it around at games - especially in front of television cameras - is not a fleeting fancy. It's a way of people proud of being Guyanese telling people everywhere else they are proud of being Guyanese and that no matter how far away they may be from the land of their birth, their navel string is still buried here. Why else would someone have taken so much pains during that recent dismal tour of New Zealand by the West Indies cricket team to get a seat in line with the television cameras, on so many cold days, and wave a Guyana flag around? It was a big flag and trucking it around New Zealand, on the other side of the world, almost, to shake and wave it for the world to see, amounted to an act of nationalism. There were Trinidad and Tobago and other flags too, proclaiming their pride in their identity in as much the same way as that Guyanese was. The flag was the country and anybody messing with that flag would have surely been in trouble - even in a foreign land. It may be quite a while before there is such enthusiasm with the Guyana flag at an international sporting or other event. In New York and other places where there are large Guyanese communities, those wanting to proclaim their Guyaneseness quickly stick or paint a Golden Arrowhead on or in front of their business place/home. The flag is what proclaims Guyana's embassies and high commissions overseas and the Golden Arrowhead is there in line with flags of other nations outside the United Nations headquarters in New York. A country's flag identifies its ships, too. The national flag is to be revered - witness the ceremony and the protocol at its hoisting and lowering. That's serious business, indicating that the Golden Arrowhead should not be urinated on. A country's flag is such serious business that when the Americans first landed on the moon, the first thing they planted there was the Stars and Stripes - the national flag of the United States of America. It's a symbol that's held in such high esteem that Guyanese cheered when it was first hoisted with the dawn of Independence on May 26, 1966, replacing the universal symbol of the British Union Jack. Guyanese were so proud of their new flag that an Army team trekked to the top of Mount Ayanganna to plant one there at Independence and they do it regularly for the Republic anniversary. The flag is such serious business that soldiers get killed in wars for the right to plant it on territory won or lost. History is full of tales of tremendous battles over putting a flag of a particular country on a little scrap of land. It's not a thing to be trifled with - this flag - and that's why the dismay is so deep over this trampling on the Golden Arrowhead. A country's flag is flown at half-mast in times of national mourning and proudly hoisted in times of victory and joy. And in tribute to their sacrifices, their toil, their dedication, their unswerving service to the nation, in Guyana it is draped over the coffins of a chosen few when they die - a President, Prime Minister, National Hero and members of the Disciplined Services fallen in the line of duty. Those who organised the use of the national flag last week in such a manner that triggered the outrage did not adhere to the acceptable national standards and are marching to a different drum beat. This had not been before but it's all a puzzle that probably fits in with the quandary the Police Force finds itself in. The Force was not so long ago praised by a group as its `Comrades In Arms' and its `Kith and Kin'. It's the same Police Force but its members are now called `psychopaths', `mavericks' and `executioners'.
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