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The impetus of political expediency

Sep 26, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
There is a consistent pattern on the part of those who opine on behalf of the ruling party, either by impetus of disingenuousness, or maybe just plain maliciousness, to distort the facts of a situation, or the utterances of those they do not like.

The most recent incident of this nature occurs in a letter by John Da Silva, captioned “No justification for describing Joint Services members as ‘bounty hunters’.”

Da Silva states in his letter, “There is no justification for the PNCR or anyone else to describe members of the services as ‘bounty hunters’.

The security services have been constantly under attack by the PNCR which has been carrying out a sustained campaign to demonize and demotivate them, unsuccessfully”.

As I recall correctly, Mr. Da Silva’s party spent 28 years doing exactly that which he now accuses the PNC of doing, using descriptions that were much more aversive and insulting. Again, an Orwellian example of convenient political metamorphosis.

I went back and read your article on the PNC’s critique of the President’s decision to include members of the force in the disbursement of the reward money for the recently killed suspects, ‘Skinny’ and ‘Fine Man’.

Your article reported, “The main opposition party yesterday said it was concerned that distributing the money to the forces could create conditions to turn them into ‘bounty hunters’. PNCR Executive Aubrey Norton told reporters that it was not the way to go.

“The armed forces themselves should not participate in rewards,” he said. He called it a dangerous trend and warned that it could encourage forces to overlook capture and simply execute. “If you link it (the reward), welcome back to Texas,” he added.

Now if any English student was given this passage to interpret and he or she said it described the Joint Services as ‘bounty hunters’ they would be failed. The passage clearly cautions against the decision of the President, arguing that it could create conditions to promote that kind of behaviour.

That is not the same as describing the Joint Services as ‘bounty hunters’. Do the frequent statements that assert that allegations of marginalisation are creating conditions to turn youths in some communities into criminals the same as describing the youths in that community as criminals?

Members of the Government and others speaking on behalf of the ruling party often make statements similar to that emanating from Mr. Norton, in response to events or commentary from the other side.

They often claim that letters of criticism against the Government or PPP will incite or encourage criminality or terrorism among the youths in certain demographic environments.

Should we then follow the pattern and interpret that to mean that they are describing the children of the opposition constituents as criminals or terrorists? What’s the difference?

In the recent issue involving threats uttered by some unbalanced person over a television programme against our nation’s Chief Executive, the argument by many evolved into the same distorted pattern of reasoning.

There were countless letters analogizing the potential legal consequences of direct threats against the life of the President of the US, with the sanctions enacted against the television station in Guyana over which the threats were uttered.

Other than the nature of the act, to wit “threats”, the analogy dissolves right there. In the US, Law Enforcement would go after the person making the threats as opposed to the public medium over which the threats were made.

This would be the natural consequence of them parsing the facts and circumstances related to the incident, rather than allowing political expediency to define interpretation of the issue. And that is what is disgustingly trendy about the reasoning of Da Silva et al.

Political expediency is the prism of their reality. Their opinions and views seem to be coming to us from the very pinnacle of a veritable Tower of Babel.
Robin Williams

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