Some people really have no shame. And in Guyana right now, a whole lotta those people can be found in the PNC leadership following the insurrectionary attack on their Capitol Hill, home of their House of Representatives and Senate, by right wing extremists following Donald Trump. These yahoos, of course, were following Trump’s line that he was “cheated, not defeated” in their November elections.
Now, dear readers, is this reminiscent of anything that happened to us here in our dear old mudland? Not just right now, but ever since 1992! In case you’ve forgotten – or more likely repressed, because it was so ugly – just refer to your Eyewitness’s piece from yesterday. Well, some PNC leaders gave their take on the American insurrection in which five persons have died.
Joe Harmon, “Leader of the Opposition” – who accepts that title and, more to the point, its perks, but not the PPP Government! – declared unctuously: “The APNU+AFC is of the view that the United States of America will have to act in a manner consistent with the global leadership role it has exercised in decades past, and it must do so quickly.”
Well, how did the US act most recently with what went down here after our March 2 elections, to demonstrate its “global leadership role” as far as democracy was concerned? After all, the US had explicitly declared that the promotion of democracy was one of its explicit foreign policy goals. It served its interests, because democratic countries are less prone to acting irrationally in the global arena since democracy insists on deliberation before action. So, what Harmon should also have said was that the US acted in its best traditions when it rejected Granger’s clinging to power when he was clearly defeated in the elections. That Trump was the US head of state when that happened and he later tried to subvert the rule in his country doesn’t vitiate the rule!!
Then came Ramjattan, who had saved democracy here by expelling several Russian spies. He clearly blamed Trump for his ejection from power. “This is seditious behaviour by the American President, and not only those mobsters that went into Capitol Building. The President and the Constitution has it that if you behave mischievously and you do misconduct for what they call misdemeanours and felonies in office, after you come off in twelve days, fourteen days from now, they should hold him, line him up and put him in what you call the orange jacket.”
So, the question for Ramjattan is: What should be done to Granger and Harmon for inciting folks in W. Berbice to riot against “Guyanese” perceived to be PPP/C supporters following the murder of the Henry cousins?
Orange jumpsuit anyone?
…its acolytes
Your Eyewitness has been looking for a silver lining after the black cloud of the PNC’s rearguard action to cling on to power by hook or by crook – mostly the latter! He found one in the ripping away of the mask of hypocrisy from a large number of persons who were “PNC to the bone”, but tried to pass as neutral. One of those is Lincoln Lewis, the erstwhile head of the TUC, an umbrella trade union body that’s supposed to represent all workers based on ILO principles.
Lewis has allowed his racial affinity to overwhelm all notions of fairness and justice. Now, there’s nothing wrong in being proud of one’s ethnic or racial group. But what’s wrong is when Lewis – who identifies as “African” – not only refuses to acknowledge PPP’s cross-ethnic initiatives in our multiracial/multiethnic country, but dubs “African” Sam Hinds as “racist” for not doing so.
So, what would Lewis say about Hinds’s PPP retaining the annual $2 billion Sugar Levy while maintaining the $2 billion electricity subsidy to Linden?
…for divisions
Your Eyewitness isn’t surprised that the PNC’s downplaying the PPP’s magnanimous treatment of the Public Servants with the bonus awarded.
But to do so by comparing it with efforts to resuscitate the sugar industry is contemptible.
