Remember one of the PNC’s slogans in the 1997 elections when Desmond Hoyte headed their list was “Light up the light with Desmond Hoyte”?? Your Eyewitness was amused at the time since it meant the prim and proper Hoyte was willing to acknowledge the Guyanese pronunciation of his name as “Hyte” for it to rhyme!! But yes…lights have always been a big part of Guyanese politics in the modern era. Didn’t the PNC, UF and their urban Labour supporters light up Georgetown on Feb 16, 1962 when they burnt the commercial Water Street District to the ground?? All to kick out the PPP government at the behest of the US CIA!!
The national poet Martin Carter said it was a moment when a “city of clerks became men”. Imagine that!! Clerks scribble numbers on lined pages while “men” torch buildings in an orgy of destruction?? Must be an atavistic allusion to the good old Cave Man days when hirsute men huddled around fires and fought off saber-tooth tigers with flaming sticks!! Anyhow, there was another “manly” light up on May 25, 1964, when 220 Indian Guyanese homes were burnt to the ground by PNC supporters at Wismar. The arsonists might’ve been neighbours of the 3000 men, women, and children occupants who had to flee for their lives – never to return!!
The next big political light-up was in 1979 when the PNC Headquarters on Camp Street – which had been merged with the Ministry of National Mobilisation – was burned down. Most people think that particular light-up was set by the PNC itself to frame Walter Rodney and Rupert Roopnarine of the WPA who’d been shaking up their dictatorship! Further political light ups were “outed” as political opponents of the PNC became shaken up by the assassination of Rodney in 1980. It wasn’t till Desmond Hyte lost the 1997 elections that he brought out the tried-and-true PNC tactic in launching the explicitly-named “slow fyaah…mo’ fyaah”!! By then, he’d given up on his middle-class niceties to adopt the lower class street lingo – maybe to ensure the orders were carried out!!
It was to be a decade of light-ups – in and out of Georgetown and the East Coast – accompanied this time by shoot-ups that left over four hundred dead in the streets. But the PPP withstood the trial by fire and the PNC returned (unsuccessfully) to their old trick of rigging elections. Of recent – as pointed out by the Min of Home Affairs – fires have started popping up all over the place- but specifically in government buildings. We had the Brickdam Police Station, the Eve Leary Office of Professional Responsibility building, several Schools etc.
Are our political pyromaniacs gearing for one big light-up??
…World Cup Cricket
Well, any light-up in the ongoing Cricket World Cup T-20 Cricket ain’t gonna come from the West Indies!! They were ignominiously ejected by cricket minnow Scotland and then Zimbabwe – in games that were just meant give those teams a feel for the big time!! We know Zimbabwe once had a good team – but Scotland?? Imagine being beaten by cricketers in skirts – that’s what those “kilts” are – no matter whom you cut it!! Oh how has the (once) mighty fallen!!
Even after our Test Cricket glory days had faded, we were still able to hold our own in T-20 – which is more in line with our Caribbean Cricketing traditions!! But our players seem to forget that while they like their cricket hot – it’s still cricket and as such demands skill, temperament and character. It’s not just slam, bam, thank you ma’am!!
Case in point is the just concluded India vs Pakistan match which India won on the last ball!!
These teams appreciate they’re playing for their country!!
…for good over evil
Well, today is Divali and even your (jaded) Eyewitness will light a light for “good side” in our country – the one that’s willing to look at the big picture and work for our betterment.
