…the criminal state
Clive Thomas, the so disant 60s and 70s radical, made quite a turn after the PPP voted out the PNC in 1992. Before, the fella was one of the most extreme Marxist dependistas in the Third World – who scorned the talk of “race” in favour of “class”, and demanded cutting all links with the West!! Then suddenly he because one of the most extreme members of race-conscious ACDA, and makes common cause with his supposed “enemy”, the PNC.
And about cutting links with the West? He’s now facilitating Exxon’s extraction of our oil to refine it in the US! And imagine this was precisely what the dependista school was formed to fight!! Some say his U-turn was because his WPA (he being the presidential candidate) predicted they’d win in 1992 and ended up with a measly 2% of the vote!! Hell hath no fury like a rejected academic!! Anyhow, as the PPP slowly rebuilt the Guyana economy out of the PNC ruins, rather than rejoicing, Thomas created another loony theory – the “criminalized state”.
But, as Thomas knows fully well, a theory is only as good as its premises, and those premises must be tested. Well, after the PNC-led APNU/AFC government slid into office, their first act was to make Thomas a Presidential Advisor and Chairman of the capitalist GUYSUCO (where he has just fired 1700 workers and is poised to axe another 5000 in a year!! But not to worry – they’re mostly Indians!). And most important of all, Director of SARA – with more power than the President, to go after – in partnership with SOCU – the loot the PPP supposedly acquired from their “criminalized state”! Testing the theory!!
But here we are – two and a half years later, one dead after a high-speed chase for “documentary proof”, dozens of audits, several high-profile “arrests”, a few charges – one of which has just been dismissed – Thomas’s theory has been blown, but the “throw shade” at the PPP continues unabated – the latest in a fevered (DIY) editorial in the Chronic!
But rather that look at a “criminalized” state, Thomas should look at political crimes. Like the one that murdered his erstwhile “friend” Walter Rodney, whose memory he and the rest of the WPA have desecrated by hopping into bed with the PNC.
…the Christmas blow-blow
Christmas isn’t even around the corner, but two of the larger unions in Guyana — the Teachers Union and the Public Service Union — have already hauled out their Christmas whistle – or as we call them in Guyana — Christmas blow-blow”!! That’s closer to what the leaders of these unions are – blowhards. Fellas that talk so forcefully – wind comes out of their nether regions!
Well, after threatening the PPP with mayhem over the last decade for not bargaining collectively with them, Patrick Yarde threw the support of his union behind APNU/AFC, since they promised a “substantial” raise for them. Well, after getting larwah while Ministers got 50%, Yarde promised, “Wait till wages negotiation!”
Well that has come and gone, with nothing more than what the PPP had done – and Yarde now promises to “get tough”!! Really? He’ll resign from his government-appointed post?
And ditto for the Teachers Union which, getting the same treatment as the public servants, threatened a strike.
Taken for granted ‘cause they’re ‘family’??
…the original Larwah Man
PM Nagamootoo complains Jagdeo “shaped” his “GECOM lists” to force Prezzie into making particular choices. Like Prezzie did when he demanded “wide knowledge of electoral matters”, yet picked Patterson, who’d be challenged to distinguish between “CR” and “PR”?!
