…and off his rocker
Your Eyewitness is getting worried about PM Nagamootoo. No, it’s not about him being shafted out of what he was promised in Cummingsburg. He clearly enjoys “shafting”, since he so revels in being reduced to a weekly columnist in the Chronic! The worry’s actually about whether he’s really recovered from that open-heart surgery, so his brain’s getting enough oxygen to function properly!
Take his first article — “Plight of the refugees” — after returning from his check-up in the States. He launched into a long and meandering attack on (who else?) his bete noir, Bharrat Jagdeo. Now, we know Nagamootoo has Jagdeo on his brain, because he convinced himself the younger man did him out of his “right” to become the PPP Leader. He never realized that calling Cheddi and Janet “Ma and Pa” never blinded them to his (vast) inadequacies!!
But this last attack went beyond his usual cattiness, since it betrayed a total lack of comprehension of what the Opposition Leader said about the influx of Venezuelan refugees. Just so your Eyewitness isn’t accused of bias, he refers to the Muckraker’s account of Jagdeo’s position. It was summarised by their headline’s strap: “WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO TREAT THEM FAIRLY AND IN A HUMANITARIAN WAY BUT IN THE LONG TERM, THEY MUST BE REPATRIATED TO VENEZUELA.” – Jagdeo.
Jagdeo insisted the refugees produce passports, and expressed two concerns – one: that the GDF was taking the lead role on the refugees; and second: that the refugees were indiscriminately lumped together. He suggested that refugees of Guyanese ancestry be accepted and resettled; those of Amerindian ancestry be allowed to remain, because they are migratory. But “given the nature of the threat on the border and what a settlement on our side of the border with permanent residents of Venezuela can pose,” the last group must accept eventual repatriation.
But how did Nagamootoo interpret that position? “It was a vintage piece of pure undiluted hypocrisy for him to oppose temporary settlement in our sovereign and secure border areas of Venezuelans, who are coming to Guyana as refugees,” he screeched!! Now where, for goodness sake, was Jagdeo opposing “temporary settlement” of refugees?? But if Nagamootoo can’t see the strategic danger of allowing Venezuelans to establish settlements in an area that ALL of them were indoctrinated to see as their birthright, then his brain is oxygen deficient at a minimum, or he’s gone off his rocker, at worse!
But worst of all was for him to claim Venezuela’s ally, “Equador, is accepting Venezuelans with ID cards only”. That’s just not true – and also for Peru!!
Is it that Nagamootoo now can’t even comprehend newspaper reports? It’s a shad, shad shituation!!
…with moral licensing
Quite a lot of Guyanese – even supporters of the PNC-led Government – wonder how these Ministers and other officials can commit so many egregious actions and still live with themselves. One explanation is they practice “Moral Licensing”. That’s the term psychologists and researchers use to describe the process by which folks use a “good” behaviour to later justify a “bad” choice. We all do this, like you know, asking for that “Diet Coke” and then gorging ourselves on a bucket of KFC, or a whole bunjal duck!!
But in the case of the Government officials, right off the bat after elections, they convinced themselves that being “public servants” is their “good behaviour”, and this then rationalises all the outrageous behaviour that follows! Like giving themselves a 50% raise but stiffing the teachers from getting a living wage and forcing them to now come into the streets for what is rightfully theirs.
The irony is: the Government Ministers and other high officials are anything but “public servants”.
They behave like they’re our lords and masters.
…“denialism”
From his elevated perch of upper class, “Coloured” self-righteousness, President Granger continues to insult lower-strata supporters. This time he warned Cuffy 250 members about the disease of ‘denialism’!!
But isn’t he suffering from that on the Hinds’ banishment from the Chronic?
