…can history be twisted?
In a remarkable gesture, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to a folksy singer from the sixties named Bob Dylan. Faithful readers of this column would know their Eyewitness had long regarded Dylan as one of the greatest poets of his era and cited some of his lines occasionally. Especially his classic, “Blowin’ in the wind”.
In that song, written when Dylan was only 21, and the Cold War beginning to heat up in Vietnam, the poet asks a number of questions that has confronted mankind, through the ages – even as they confront us in Guyana today. And the answer, the seer tells us, is “blowin’ in the wind”. They’re already there – waiting for someone who is willing to act, to pluck them like scraps of paper, blowin’ in the wind.
It’s said there are no coincidences in this world. Yesterday, your Eyewitness wrote about the trial of the Bartica 5, triggering memories of the decade-long violence that scarred our country as the PPP/C Government was challenged on its right to govern. And that night, the President spoke in the National Assembly – making it into a “Parliament” – and spoke of the same events.
But labelling them “the troubles” he laid the killings and rapes and robberies completely at the feet of the PPP and “drug lords”. And one is reminded of the words of Dylan: “How many times can a man turn his head/and pretend that he just doesn’t see.” You readers would know your Eyewitness has a soft spot for Prezzie…but did the words he uttered describe what he knows?
Didn’t the “troubles” begin with the refusal of the PNC – under the leadership of Desmond Hoyte – to concede he’d lost the elections of 1997? Didn’t it begin with the protests in the streets of Georgetown as PNC supporters stabbed white dolls representing President Janet Jagan and prayed, “Wuk pon she!”? Didn’t matters get out of hand and hundreds of “supporters of the PPP” were beaten in Georgetown while the forces of law and order remained on the sidelines?
Wasn’t Buxton taken over and became a haven of “political sophisticates” – as called by Eusi Kwayana – who had to flee the village? Wasn’t there a band of gunmen holed up there who called themselves “Resistance Fighters” on behalf of African Guyanese? And in retaliation for some high handed actions by the police, declared war on that organisation and killed them like flies? Didn’t the COP “head” off his Minister from the Agricola Massacre?
“Yes, and how many deaths will it take ‘til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
…can you lie?
Basil Williams should be reminded of the line from the poem mentioned above: “Yes, How many years can a mountain exist/Before it is washed to the sea?” The PNC of Forbes Burnham once thought they would never be removed from office – because with the PPP communist bogey the USA would never allow “Moscow’s client” into office here. But the mountain of the USSR crumbled like so many grains of sand in a sandcastle when the tide comes in after seventy years – and the PPP returned to office.
So he should be careful with his prevarications on the expropriation of private property. No one is fooled – least of all the voters – about his ever shifting excuses for his actions. Surely if you want to purchase a property you can – like the PPP evidently did – just ask the owners. What’s this nonsense about needing a ‘survey” which must be cleared by a gazetted notice to compulsorily acquire!
This is putting the ass before the cart.
