Dear Editor,
So the President used an unusual word, “vulgarian”, dating back to the 1640-50s, to describe the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) protest in the Parliament Chambers during his speech? Most people got the gist of what the word meant but actually the choice of the word by the President is rather illustrative of a particular mind set.
The word means “a vulgar person, especially one whose vulgarity is the more conspicuous because of wealth, prominence, or pretensions to good breeding,” according to the Random House and Collins dictionaries. It is a little used word, popular in the 1800s, and mostly used as a “put down” especially from an aristocratic or upper middle-class point of view to denote people not of their class or beneath their class.
So the President found the PPP/C’s behaviour vulgarian? Funny he didn’t find that the case when he was Leader of the Opposition and his members, surely under his direction, banged the tables for long periods on many, many occasions in the 10th Parliament, thereby preventing several members of Government side from speaking, including Minister Clement Rohee for nine months, or, singing hymns loudly, or, even putting up placards. It happened so many times that the then Speaker, Mr Raphael Trotman, now Natural Resources Minister, had to suspend the sittings on several occasions, and, on others, adjourn the sitting abruptly as the Opposition benches refused to listen to his admonitions and appeals to stop the noise and allow the sitting to proceed. At no time was any action taken by the Speaker to discipline these members.
This is the same A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC) in opposition that reduced three annual budgets by GY billion, thereby denying Guyanese of important services and programmes they deserved.
It is the same APNU and AFC Opposition which reneged on agreements made in the Inter-Parliamentary Parties Dialogue with President Ramotar on the Linden electricity subsidy, on the composition of the Commission of Inquiry on the Linden Disturbances, and, on the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.
It is the same APNU and AFC Opposition which fanned the disturbances in Linden for 36 days that destroyed parts of the town, and, divided the country physically in two.
It is the same APNU and AFC which organised and gave support to the October 11, 2012, protesters on the East Bank Highway in the vicinity of Agricola village, some imported from outside the community, who blocked the main thoroughfare into and out of the capital city, Georgetown, with connections to two other regions at rush hour for seven hours.
Vehicles and debris were used to block the highway on all four lanes and fires were set. Thousands of commuters including school children were trapped in a small area with nowhere to turn. Citizens were attacked and robbed and hundreds of vehicles were unable to move for over seven long hours.
In retrospect, the loss of life and property during the Linden disturbances and the Agricola protests are indicators of the level of extremism, irresponsible and reckless leadership that the APNU/AFC Government is capable of.
Ironic isn’t it that the worst behaviour of the parliamentary Opposition in the Chambers was during the 10th Parliament when Granger was Leader of the Opposition?
This pattern of behaviour continued during the election campaign, and, after the May 11, 2015 General And Regional Elections, whilst the country was waiting for the final results, the party and coalition he heads threatened GECOM, the international observers and the diplomatic corps that they would burn the city down and wreck violence if the results weren’t announced urgently? This scare tactic was designed to prevent a recount of 20 ballot boxes which the Chairman initially agreed to on the morning of May 14, 2017 and then recanted a few hours later.
And now as Government, the President and his spokesperson, having unilaterally, unconstitutionally and undemocratically appointed the Chairman of GECOM, and destroyed trust in the integrity of the electoral machinery, finds the PPP/C protest in the Chambers anti-national? And the Prime Minister calls this action “domestic terrorism”? Their sensibilities have been offended by a peaceful protest? How hypocritical!
Sincerely,
Gail Teixeira, MP,
Chief Whip,
parliamentary
Opposition
