…PNC oppression
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo received a firestorm of denunciation from the PNC and its partisans after he advised Berbicians to “chase out” ministers and lackeys of the Government if they come to “woo” them after their destruction of the Berbice economy, especially sugar. He was denounced as “uncouth” and not “civil” in his remarks!!
Even some supporters fell for the sophistry and felt Jagdeo’s call was “out of place”. Now, bear in mind that Jagdeo wasn’t calling for violence, just that oppressed Berbicians should express their frustration over the PNC’s callous and spiteful acts against them.
What was Jagdeo supposed to tell them? Offer Nagamootoo and Granger tea and cookies when they come around fishing for their votes?? Fool me once, shame on you: fool me twice; shame on ME!!
But the demand for civility from Jagdeo towards the Government and its minions — after four years of unremitting marginalisation of his constituency — is a tactic that has long been exposed for what it is: DEFENDING THE OPPRESSIVE STATUS QUO. Of course the oppressor would like you to be polite, and would encourage you to “go along to get along”; it reifies the unjust system in all its putridness. But when you are struggling for your survival – like Berbicians are – civility just won’t cut it!!
The PNC oppressors are trying to turn reality of its head and make themselves out as the victims being wronged by Jagdeo, who is merely reacting to their betrayal of all Guyana. The people of Guyana must understand that the denunciation of Jagdeo’s call to the oppressed Berbicians and their call for civility is just to stifle their frustrations. But the struggle against an oppressor that is oblivious to your sufferings can never be civil – even though you are fighting for your “civil” rights.
As Frederick Douglass once remarked, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”
Jagdeo’s call for Berbicians to “chase the PNC out” was to choose words, and not “blows”. Protest has to be by definition uncivil. Even the great Gandhi and MLK had to be disruptive, and were jailed for their efforts. Jagdeo’s incivility, in fact, is an alternative to the violent protests the PNC launched whenever it decided its constituency was wronged.
Right now, the people of Guyana should be girding their loins to be “uncivil” to the PNC on April 11; that’s when their 4 dual-citizen, illegal MPs say they’ll enter Parliament
…economic blindness
Last week, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce as well as the Private Sector Commission reported that their members were experiencing a “decline in business” because of the political situation. “Not so!!” President Granger immediately declared. “That was just their perception, and in fact was a misconception.” And in that short but pithy statement we can see why the PNC can never run a free enterprise economy.
Granger painfully explained his actions after the NCM: “There’s no chaos or confusion or crisis in the political situation. Everything that has happened since the 21st of December has been logical and, on the part of the Government, it has been within the framework of the law.” Well, it very well might be…but Granger misses the point when he dismisses it all as “perception”.
He’s obviously oblivious to the “Thomas Theorem”: If men define their situations as real, they are real in their consequences. If consumers and businessmen believe the Government’s actions would create political tensions, they’ll trim their spending.
It’s called declining “consumer confidence”!
…Minister’s diagnosis
Your Eyewitness doesn’t want to be an alarmist…but if the tests on the illness that struck eight Chinese, leaving one dead, aren’t complete, how can the Minister categorically rule out Swine Flu??
How’d she arrive at her “false negative”??
