Eye pass…
…in Parliament
No matter how you cut it, slice it, or dice it, the outcome of the Opposition MPs creating bedlam in Parliament when the Government’s NRF Bill was being debated doesn’t bode well for our fledgling democracy. Let’s not forget the word “bedlam” originated from the name of a British madhouse back in the day!! And what else but a “madhouse” could what went down that day be described as?
Here you had it, the entire affair was being streamed live to the country – and to the world, in case they were interested! And what did we see beamed into our living rooms?? In what had to be a pre-planned operation, a dozen PNC/AFC MPs jumped up as the Finance Minister stood up to present the Bill and stormed across the floor dividing the Government MPs from the Opposition’s. Right here was a declaration of war by the APNU/AFC coalition against the sacrosanct conventions of Parliament!! That space is considered neutral ground between the two sides!!
Led by the Opposition’s Chief Whip no less, they rushed the Finance Minister as they pulled out whistles from their pockets and blew them with such intensity as to create a cacophony that even across virtual space into your Eyewitness’s living room, he feared for his hearing!! He will always remember the aplomb of the Finance Minister, who didn’t flinch but continued with superhuman self-control seemingly unperturbed, with his speech!! Fearing for the safety of the diminutive in size – but giant in pluck – Finance Minister, Government MPs rushed to his defence and your Eyewitness feared fistfights might break out any minute.
But it became clear that wasn’t the PNC’s plan. The violence they wanted to inflict was on the institution of Parliament itself. This hallowed body that evolved over a millennium with the sole purpose of steering disagreements between the representatives of opposing citizens and their opinions, in peaceful avenues. To avert the endemic wars of the years before!! Three of them rushed the seat of the Speaker and seized the Mace – symbol of the authority of Parliament!! They wrenched it from the Sergeant at Arms who guards it and rushed out of the Chamber with it – clearly intending to destroy it. From what they argued later, they expected that without the Mace’s authority, the NRF wouldn’t be legally passed!!! Wicked!!
Luckily, the Speaker had a spare Mace and brought it out even as a parliamentary employee fought to reclaim the original and guarded it with his body. He didn’t let go even when one PNC MP racially taunted him as a “House Slave”!!
And now the PNC’s going to the Courts because the Parliamentary Privileges Committee slapped eight of their wrists – with temporary suspensions??
Bereft of Parliament, they would’ve been tarred and feathered!!
…on Indigenous Indians
The world cheered when Indian lawmakers voted a tribal woman – Droupadi Murmu – as the President of India – the largest democracy in the world. While their origins are lost in hoary antiquity, science has proven that India’s over 100 million tribals are its most ancient peoples!! They’ve also continued to live in the forests that must’ve covered the entire country at one time.
But as has happened all across the world – including Guyana – they’re seen as “uncivilised” by those who invaded their forests and shunted them aside. As in the Americas, Africa, and Australia, this was true in ancient India, as well as during the Moghul and succeeding British colonial conquests. But Murmu’s election as President gives one hope that a change is gonna come for tribals in India.
But it ain’t gonna be easy. One so-called educated, westernised executive at a large Indian English-language magazine said no way would he recognise a tribal as President!!
These shameful prejudices must be eliminated!!
…on Rodney
Whatever one may say about Walter Rodney, he was not vindictive, like, say, Burnham. The latter’s own sister said he had “a certain dark strain of cruelty”. Some claiming Rodney’s mantle are imitating Burnham rather than the great man.
