…in the firing line
They say that when you go to crab dance, you better not be afraid to get dirty!! And when you enter anything that the PNC’s involved in, you know for sure you’re at a crab dance, and it’s gonna get down and dirty!!
The CCJ haven’t even announced their decision on the PPP’s appeal, and already the PNC’s “cuss brigade” have started doing their thing like there’s no tomorrow!! The PPP, of course, have already bought out all the Justices on the panel – even the one who had to be rounded up at the last minute “due to unforeseen circumstances”.
Yep!! The PPP have their tentacles everywhere – with moneybags ready, into which they can slither!!
We’re now asked why would we proud and indomitable Guyanese even want these small islanders – which can all fit into the mouth of the Essequibo river – tell us what to do!! How dare they?? So what if, during the Burnham days, half of the Guyanese population had to flee to these same small islands to survive??
We were doing them a favour by exposing them to our cultured and sophisticated world view and activities. So what if Burnham drove the Caribbean Development into bankruptcy?? Or that Trinidad had to write off over US$400 million in our accumulated petro debt??
This morning, your Eyewitness was regaled – well, “bombarded” might be more apt! – with moanings and groanings on how biased the CCJ Justices were. Now, you’ve got to realise these arrogant Justices had the chutzpah to ask questions to clear up ambiguities in the testimonies. Like asking that PNC lawyer Jeremie – who’d expatiated prolifically about how clauses similar to our Art 177 (2) had been interpreted elsewhere – to produce a SINGLE instance in the entire Commonwealth where such a petition had been filed BEFORE the declaration of a winner!!
Who were they to embarrass Mr Jeremie?? Didn’t they know that – like our own legal luminary Basil Williams – he’d been awarded silk? That they were both AGs when this was done by their head of government is irrelevant, excuse me!! The point, of course, is the CCJ pretenders couldn’t match the judicial perspicacity of the two Judges on our Appellate Court who had produced that classic judgement (rivalling Denning’s best!) that 33 wasn’t the majority of 65.
And now that “votes” in the Constitution means “valid votes”!! Which of these benighted small islanders could ever think so profoundly??
That they produced THREE Nobel Prize winners – Arthur Lewis, Walcott and Naipaul – is a complete fluke!! Don’t they know that we produced the greatest genius the world has ever seen in Forbes Burnham??
Think it’s easy to ruin a country in a decade??
…is our last hope
But seriously, folks, the CCJ’s our last hope to have a viable country before the PNC wrecks it all to high heaven. And this time they won’t need a decade. In just five years, look what they did to our single biggest weakness – race relations – that’s prevented us from progressing – even though we’re so blessed with all the natural resources you could wish for.
Very…very…slowly, we’d progressed to a point that the PNC, in tandem with a small party like the AFC, could wrench away the government from the PPP. That was progress. For the simple reason that democracies have to get governments that alternate ever so often. The converse is to have ossification creep into even the most well-intentioned government – such as what Cheddi had left.
Then after 5 years of the PNC coalition, they were ousted by the same PPP, who’d confessed to the mistakes and hubris they’d succumbed to during their 23 years at the helm.
If the CCJ allows the PNC to get back via the rigging road, we’re doomed for another 28 years of devastation!
…and irony
Your Eyewitness happened onto a discussion on a PNC-friendly e-radio programme that railed against the CCJ and US “foreigners” meddling in Guyana’s “sovereignty”.
While their lobbyist Bart Fischer was asked to weigh in!!
