…a comrade?
Clive Thomas has been in the news recently on account of suggesting that every household be given $1million annually from the coming oil revenues. One thing this has done is to knock criticisms of the oil contract “negotiated” by Raphael Trotman completely off the map! Maybe this is not entirely coincidental? At the time Thomas made his gambit, the place he chose to do it was interesting to your Eyewitness: at an Emancipation commemoration.
Now, even though Thomas’s proposal covered “all” Guyanese households, surely he chose a gathering of the descendants of African slaves because they prompted the thought that they needed to be helped. But Thomas was also Chairman of GuySuCo when the corporation fired 5,700 descendants of mostly indentured servants. Didn’t it cross his mind then that he could’ve made the suggestion to the authorities to give those sugar workers some hope for the future? Are they not also people, and deserving of some compassion?
Be it as it may, your Eyewitness’s thoughts were drawn to Thomas for another reason: the other day, when he learnt that Samir Amin had passed away. Well, dear reader, if you’d gone to university in the 1970s, you wouldn’t have asked “Who is Samir Amin?” Amin was a revolutionary Marxist, along with Thomas — yes, the same Clive Thomas, zipping his lips when thousands of workers under his charge are fired – leaders in pushing for developing countries to make a radical break with the advanced economies, especially the US! Thomas’s book summarising his position was “Dependence and Transformation”, while Samir’s was “Unequal Development”.
Under their “dependency” thesis, there was no way developing countries could actually “develop” if those links were not sundered. Their whole thesis was more anti-American than anything else, and they pushed a line that Europe should make common cause with China, India and Russia to neutralise the US. So, with Samir joined at the hip with Thomas – including their association with the Marxist Journal “Monthly Review” – your Eyewitness wondered why Thomas hadn’t even issued a message of condolence at his old comrade’s passing.
Was he embarrassed about what his old comrades at Monthly Review think about him joining the PNC in Government after what they did to Walter Rodney? Was he embarrassed that Samir didn’t sell out his Marxist principles on the altar of race? Or is it he doesn’t want to remind the US that he spent most of his life on the frontline denouncing their “hegemony” with their creation and maintenance of “Monopoly Capitalism”??
Be as it may, Samir Amin was a product of his times, and made some useful observations and analyses of the “World Order”.
He doesn’t deserve to be dropped like a hot potato by Thomas!
…or traducing the Rule of Law?
Sometimes the application of the law in particular circumstances leads to unfair or ridiculous outcomes, and it‘s said “the law is an ass”! But it’s another thing to make an ass of the law, which is what this Government, in general – and its Attorney General in particular — insists on doing.
Take this nonsense going on with the AG about the application – more specifically, the NON- application – of the Judicial Review Act (JRA), which “makes provision for citizens to challenge actions of public authorities on the grounds that their actions are unlawful, illegal, and capricious, contrary to some written law, ultra vires or violate the rules of natural justice.” Now why in goodness’ sake would the AG want to hold further “consultations” when the Chief Justice has confirmed it must be applied pronto? He’s just making an ass of the law and the Judiciary. Now we hear the JRA will be discussed in Cabinet!
So the Executive’s perception of the law will trump the Judiciary’s?
…injustice to the ordinary citizen
Cabinet will also be looking into the Broomes Affair…eventually! Ordinary guards are immediately detained for performing their duties.
But Broomes doesn’t even get a rap on the knuckles for abusing her authority!
